Darkness, Be My Friend
by NightmareWeaver
Summary: The HunterGratzner crashed most horribly, leaving behind only two survivors to face the monsters lying in wait both in and beyond the desert.
1. The Fall of the HunterGratzner

A/N : I have returned, mainly due to my muses and their constant bickering.This is a repost. There have been some changes, but they are minor and mostly grammatical in nature. Oh, and I'm going to make full use of this new forum feature, so if you wish to discuss, flame, orjust talk, then visit my forums!

**Darkness, Be My Friend**

Prologue : The Downfall of the Hunter-Gratzner

_Somewhere there was an alarm going off, blaring and beeping and dragging Carolyn Fry out of the not-so-cozy embrace of cryo-sleep. The world was blurred as she opened her eyes, the transparent flat panel display on the door of her cryo-locker screaming silently for her to understand. Oxygen flooded back into her lungs, suddenly her eyesight cleared and she could focus on the flickering images set right at eye-level on the screen._

_A layout of the ship popped up, one section of it blinking red to indicate a hull breach somewhere near the nav bay. Immediately following that came the readouts on the life systems for the crew, whose cryo-lockers were set to automatic wake-up in case of an emergency. Fry's eyes flicked upwards, past the screen and out into the main cabin, settling on the cryo-locker across from her own. _

_Inside was the just rousing form of the captain and his eyes opened slightly to lock on hers with the disoriented gaze caused by extended use of cryo. His expression almost cleared and then things went to hell, for no sooner had he taken in his first breath since the last dock, did he start convulsing. Fry stared in wide-eyed horror, watching helplessly as his body became riddled with holes from micro sized bits of god-knows-what breaking through the hull and the walls of his locker._

_Finding herself able to move, Fry reached up for the manual release for her locker door, yanking it as hard as she could. The door fell open and she fell with it, landing with a thud on the cold metal floor, gasping when something heavy landed on top of her back. Grunting, she tried to push herself up, to push the weight off and was greeted by the confused voice of one of her crew mate, the navigator, Owens. _

_"Why did I fall on you?" he asked, oblivious to the fact that Fry was trying to shove him off her back. She recalled that cryo-sleep disoriented him more than it did the rest of the crew, something she did not need to be worrying about right then. Her eyes fell on the captain's ruined locker, and the blood now seeping to the floor on the inside._

_"He's dead," she coughed, trying to pull herself away from Owens. "Captain's dead, I was looking right at him wh-"_

_"Chrono shows we're at twenty-two weeks out, gravity wasn't supposed to kick in for another nineteen," Owens cried, cutting her off and pushing himself up with one hand while looking at the watch-like device on his wrist. "Why'd I fall at all?"_

_Fry rolled over, climbing to her knees before giving Owens a look._

_"Did you hear what I said?" she half yelled at him, calling his attention away from the surrounding lockers and electrical junctions. "The Captain's dead."_

_His eyes went wide in horror at this revelation, mirroring what Fry herself felt on the inside._

_Within seconds they both scrambled to their feet, running towards the front of the ship as fast as their legs could carry them. Owens paused a moment to grab their jumpsuits, tossing one to Fry while hastily trying to pull his on with one hand. She caught it, slamming the door panel with one hand to open the control sector doors. She didn't bother to wait for them to open fully, but squeezed herself through when there was enough room._

_Pulling on her suit over her regular uniform, she jumped into her usual chair amidst the screaming alarms and the frantic beeping of the control panels. She read the screens, processing the information that her eyes were feeding her._

_"Fifteen-fifty millibars, dropping twenty MB a minute. SHIT!" She yanked one arm of her suit on, gritting her teeth at the screens as Owens climbed into the nav station, slapping on his own consoles. "We're hemorrhaging air! Something took a swipe at us!"_

_"Just tell me we're still in the shipping lane," Owens said to himself, looking over his own screens while she was pulling her suit on all the way. "Just show me those stars, all those bright, beauti-" _

_He stopped and Fry turned, seeing the flicker of terror in his eyes that only served to amplify her own fear._

_"What?" she cried, scrambling over to look at the screen. It showed a view from one of the exterior sensors, the curved surface of a planet rushing up at them. "Jesus Christ!"_

_She dashed for the ladder that led to the cockpit, ignoring Owens' mumbling as he went and pulled up the comms. The alarms were still screeching as she vaulted into the pilot's chair, hurriedly strapping herself in. Fingers flew over the switches, slipping once or twice, but she finally found the one that opened the crash shutters. Golden sunlight flooded the confined compartment, blinding her for a moment, but the sudden cease of the alarms drew her attention back to the task at hand._

_Fry slammed up some switches to pull up the aft engine breakers and was thrown violently forward against her restraints, snapping her head painfully forward. She felt the ship start to spin and cursed under her breath as the computer yelled at her to deploy the forward air brakes._

_"Shit, shit, shit!"_

_She reached down and started pulling the levers for the brakes, one after another until it came to the last one, the second lower air brake. This one stuck fast no matter how hard she yanked at it, the back of the ship sinking dangerously downwards._

**Recommend purging ballast now **

_The computerized voice rang in her ears and Fry mechanically began turning the knobs that would allow her to do as it said. Again she heard Owens, yelling about the comms missing, but it sounded so far away. She reached overhead for the main release lever and pulled it down, feeling the kick as the back part of the ship, the part with the main drives, fell away._

_"What the-" she heard Owens yell. "Was that a purge Fry?"_

_"Too heavy in the ass," she shouted back by way of explanation, reaching for the next set of the knobs. The first purge had done nothing to receive the fact that they were falling in a way that would kill them all if she couldn't fix it. The second purged helped for mere seconds, but the sheer strength of the wind-speed in this atmosphere pulled the nose of the ship back up again. "Can't get my fucking nose down!"_

_She kicked her foot against the console, glancing out the window catching a sudden glimpse of the fast approaching ground._

_"Shit!" _

**Recommend purging ballast now **

_Mechanically, she did as the computer her bid her, hands moving of their own accord while her mind seemed to drift somewhere else._

_"Fry?" Owens yelled, calling her back to reality._

_"Got to dump more load," she said, her own voice sounding haunting to her ears._

_"What, that load of passengers?" Owens shouted back, sounding panicked. "Damn it Fry, Company says we're responsible for each and every-" _

_"The Company isn't fucking here!" she shouted back, reaching up for the handle, a sudden certainty overtaking her mind. "I'm not dying for them!" _

_

* * *

_

_Back in the passenger cabin the bulkhead doors had just closed shut with a clank, cutting the rest of the ship off from the cockpit. The turbulence wreaking havoc on the hull outside was causing the cryo-lockers to shift from their original positions, creaking with every jolt. Shaken awake from one of those particular jolts, one of the passengers, registered on the manifest as Williams Johns, opened his eyes._

_He blinked away the blurry feeling in his head, trying to focus his gaze on the outside of his locker. But something nagged at the back of his mind, an ominous feeling that was confirmed by a sudden violent jolt that threw him forward, out of the locker. He landed with a crash against the floor and was promptly thrown against the ceiling as the entire compartment began performing somersault._

_Cryo-lockers all along the walls began to rip loose from the force of gravity, one of them tumbling right into him, pinning him to the wall with such force that he felt like he was being be ripped in half. Johns cursed inwardly at the pain, unable to get a breath to shout about it as it tore him apart. His eyes fell on one of the few cryo-lockers still adhered to the walls, mind barely registering the glowing words of warning on the doors before something went flying past, drawing his pain blurred gaze._

_Johns never realized that what he'd seen was the lower half of his body being flung to the opposite end of the cabin. By the time his neurons fired that synapses his heart had already stopped beating. _

_

* * *

_

_"FRY!" Owens shouted as the ship jerked back, the result of the rest of the back compartments separated themselves from the cockpit. She heard his shout but was forced to ignore it because the proximity alarms were screaming at her again. Her gaze flicked to one of the screens displaying the altitude and she scrambled with the last airbrake, kicking it down while Owens screamed at her from the nav station. _

_"FUCK!" Fry yelled as she looked up again, ground racing up too fast for her to follow, the panel from the last air brake snapping off to slam into the window._

_It shattered in her face, glass and sand streaming into the cockpit with a deafening roar, forcing her to shield herself. The last thing she saw before she covered her eyes were the tall spiky spires of what resembled termite mounds and the orange-red stained sky._

_Then the nose of the ship hit the sand, catching it roughly and flipping the entire thing over. Fry her own scream tearing at her throat, but the ability to hear anything was temporarily lost as the roof of the ship came smashing down, screeching to a rumbling dusty halt. She was thrown forwards, arms and chest slamming against the control panel, knocking the air from her lungs._

_Fry tried to breath, but dust and sand clawed at her throat, preventing the air from entering her lungs. Her head swam and her eyes began to lose focus on her surroundings. She coughed once, her eyesight blurring as she tasted the blood in her mouth, then faded completely as Owens shouted her name for the last time. _

_

* * *

_

_Then there was silence and stillness in every form shouting loudly for attention after the cessation of so much noise. The passenger cabin had, by some miracle, fallen into a relatively upright position after plowing a deep furrow in the sand; scraps of metal and detached cryo lockers flung out in the wake of its landing. Within it there was a sight roughly equivilant to that of a mildly populated area in the aftermath of a category five hurricane, minus the thankful survivors. _

_They hadn't woken up yet._


	2. Survivors in the Aftermath

A/N : Going to post all the chapters at once and then start posting 'The Other Side of Dawn' so here we go again. To shamrock920 and TotallyRiddickObsessed, so glad to be back, 'cause actually I did miss this place and everyone here. I'm thinking like this forum feature they have going now.

**Darkness, Be My Friend**

Chapter One : Survivors in the Aftermath

The first thought that ran through twelve-year-old Jack's mind was that she couldn't breathe properly. It felt like there was a thousand pound weight on her chest preventing her lungs from expanding all the way. Panic began to well up in the pit of her stomach when she opened her eyes and saw absolutely nothing.

_Oh crap..._

Her arms felt heavy as she raised them up, feeling the inside of her cryo-locker. She was startled to find that the release lever was on the opposite side of where it should have been.

"Oh shit," she cursed, realizing that this meant her locker was upside down on the floor. She was lying on the door and the panic was starting to get out of hand as her mind cross-referenced it with being in a coffin. Where that imagery had popped up from, she didn't know, she just needed to get out of there.

Jack kicked her feet up, hitting the back of the locker with an audible thump. She wasn't sure if it could be heard on the outside, so she kicked again, harder this time. Then a horrifying thought crossed her mind, hitting her almost hard enough to cause pain.

_What if there isn't anyone alive outside?_

* * *

There was too much light for him to open his eyes, so Riddick kept them closed as he slowly pulled himself out of his cryo locker. He could smell blood mingling with the burnt chemicals in the air and he noted that there was less oxygen than normal, forcing his lungs to take in more breaths than usual. Sound was something a little more difficult, the crash had brought with it a temporarily deafening roar that had left a ringing in his ears. 

The chains attached to his legs made it impossible to stand or walk without some difficulty, but he managed it, cautiously stepping into the shadows. He raised his hands up to his face and pushed the blindfold up, eyes glinting an unnatural silver as he turned to assess the damage. The entire passenger compartment had been ripped nearly to shreds; cryo-lockers lay scattered like torn paper, bodies still halfway in them or halfway out depending on your point of veiw. Drying blood mingled with the dust and debris; there was very little that looked intact, except for maybe the back portion of the compartment.

It was towards there that he moved, carefully closing his eyes as he walked through the light, opening them only when he passed back into the shadows. His hearing was returning now and he could hear a faint sound emanating from the only other intact cryo-locker in the wreckage. It was overturned so that the door was pressed against the floor, trapping whoever was inside more effectively than his own had.

Riddick stared down at it, listening to the thunks and the muffled shouts filling the air, the only sound other than the faint creaking of the ship. It was then that he saw Johns, or what was left of the Merc's top half. He was almost unrecognizable, but Riddick knew the man's blood and there was no mistaking that sour smell. Johns was dead, torn in half because he'd fallen out of his cryo-locker and it was apparent from the blood staining the floor that it had been the overturned locker that had done the damage.

He glanced back at the locker and knelt down, listening to the thuds and shouts that were getting steadily more and more panicked within. He focused on the voice and closed his eyes, trying to determine the facts before deciding what to do about it.

Cryo-sleep never had the same effect on him as it did on others and so he had been able to hear all that had gone on during the crash. The micro-scopic space debris breaking through the hull, the sudden cessation of the slowed down heartbeat of an occupant in one of the other lockers, and the crash as others fell out of their own. He'd felt the jolts as one by one the aft portions of the ship had been cut loose and knew that they were in the gravitational pull of a planet. Pilots for transport ships like that one usually always listened to what the computers told them, so it hadn't been a surprise when he'd heard the bulkhead doors for the passenger compartment clank shut.

_Purging the ballast to save what you can. Standard final procedure should worst come to worst, but that wasn't the case this time. Pilot probably panicked._

The crash was a bad one as evidenced by the damage he had seen and Riddick wasn't fool enough to believe that he was unkillable. It was only because his cryo-locker had been reinforced to keep him from escaping it that he had survived and the irony did not escape him. This one ordinary locker had gone unscathed while all the others had been torn apart only because it had been cut off from the wall by the late Mr. Johns. Whoever was inside had to be the only other survivor, unless the flight deck of the ship had remained intact, which he highly doubted.

It was a girl, Riddick decided, opening his eyes again to stare at the locker. The shouts were too high in pitch to be a boy and there were set age limits on cryo-sleep for it was dangerous for anyone under the age of ten to be injected with the chemicals. And besides, he could smell the fear-filled scent of the person in the air and that scent was undeniably female, twelve, maybe thirteen with a different kind of blood smell than that rusted copper scent that had already filled the air.

For a mere moment, he contemplated just leaving the kid in there, but there was no reason to do so and, despite the popular opinion of the rest of the galaxy, Riddick never did anything without a reason. The newsnets would say otherwise, but he never hurt kids either, not intentionally.

_Can't lift it with the chains still on though..._

He stood up again and turned to the side, scanning the wreckage again for anything that might help remove the metal binders. The equipment cabinets had been ripped from the walls in the initial crash, their contents spewed all over the floor amongst the debris. But it was all med boxes and emergency repair equipment, most of which was useless for cutting through chains. Except there, dropped in the corner with the fuel line tangled in a mess of wires, was a standard steel welding torch, perfectly intact.

Riddick stepped over and easily disentangled it, pulling down the wires with it to find another small storage box. This one fell open on the floor as he picked up the torch and he smirked to himself upon seeing that it contained the extra canisters and nozzles for the torch, as well as a pair of round black welding goggles.

He pulled those out, fitting them on over his eyes before dragging the torch over to a clearer area so he could cut the chains off.

* * *

Jack was on the verge of giving up. Her legs and arms hurt from banging against the walls of her cryo-locker and her throat was hoarse from screaming for someone, anyone, to hear her and rescue her from the confines of this shrinking space. The interior of the locker felt twelve times smaller than it had been when she'd woken up and now she was severely wishing that she hadn't. 

She was exhausted but she knew she'd never be able to sleep, not in this enclosed space, not knowing she may never get out of there.

_Please...just let someone...don't care who or even what...I just want out of here...please..._

Jack made another kick against the wall, hearing the thunk herself but knowing now that no one would hear it. Hours must have past in which she'd screamed and kicked and made as much noise as she could, but there'd been no response.

_Cause there's no one out there, Jack. You're the only one left alive and you're going to die before any rescue comes. They'll find your corpse and say 'oh, the poor little girl, she never had a chance' and they'll just count you off a statistic with the rest of them..._

Jack let out a sob and found she couldn't stop, after all, it seemed to be the only reasonable thing to do right then. No tears fell though, she'd wasted them in the initial panic of being trapped like this.

A sudden scraping sound startled her out of her despair and she felt the locker shift slightly as if something was trying to move it. She felt a surge of hope, someone had heard her at last, she wasn't going to die in this coffin. Lifting a hand, she knocked against the wall, rolling over on her side and pressing one ear against the side of the locker, listening.

Without warning the locker was suddenly lifted and flipped right-side up, and Jack let out a small yelp of surprise as she fell back inside it, smashing her elbow against the wall. Blinking against the sudden return of the light, a sense of relief washed over her so strongly that she felt like jumping for joy. She settled, however, for sitting up, which proved to be slightly more difficult than simply thinking about it.

Jack pushed herself up from the locker, looking out over the edge to see her rescuer crouching just a few feet away. She could feel his gaze despite the opaque black goggles he wore over his eyes and she found herself staring right back at him, gaping slightly. She'd seen him before, when they were loading the ship, but only because she'd been one of the last few passengers getting on board. He'd been in chains, blindfolded with a bit stuck in his mouth; some guy that she'd taken to be a police officer of sorts had dragged him in, helped by some of the security personal from the port.

She recalled the cop saying something about the lock-out protocol on his cryo-locker and how the crew had seemed so nervous, glancing over their shoulders with fear in their eyes. She had asked who he was and had gotten the usual look adults give kids who ask the wrong kind of questions, but they'd told her anyways.

So Jack knew that she was staring right at the most dangerous man in the galaxy, a killer wanted in more than twelve systems, what the public deemed to be a monster. Richard B. Riddick, escaped convict, murderer. Oddly enough, she didn't feel afraid.

_He heard me...he helped me..._

Riddick seemed to be gaging her reaction to his presence, although she couldn't be sure for his face was devoid of any expression. He crouched there, seemingly at ease but alert at the same time, if that was even possible; like a cat waiting for its prey. He was so completely silent that Jack would have thought he wasn't breathing if it wasn't for the slight movement of his muscular chest under the black wife beater he wore.

After what seemed like forever, he moved, standing slowly from his crouch, though Jack could still feel his gaze on her. She stared up at him, watching as he turned his head slightly to glance to the side, as if listening for something. That's when she noticed the damage to the rest of the passenger cabin, the giant tear in the hull some ways off and the cryo-lockers torn from the walls, all of them ripped apart into their component pieces.

Jack's eyes widened when she saw that the passengers that had been inside the lockers were, more or less, still there.

_Holy shit...what happened?_

Jack started to stand up, her feet feeling slightly strange underneath her as she used the side of the cryo-locker to steady herself. She swung a leg over the side and climbed out, but she knocked her foot against something and stumbled. Almost immediately she felt a firm hand grab her shoulder and pull her back up; it happened in a split second and then she was released, standing upright.

"Thank you," she said, her throat feeling scratchy as she looked up at him. Riddick's face was still expressionless as he stared down at her, and Jack suddenly felt very small. He was a good two feet taller than she was and it suddenly dawned on her that there was no way in hell he'd believe her guise as a guy. He'd probably already figured out she was a girl even with the short hair and the boy's clothes.

Without a word, he walked silently past her towards the shadows at the back of the cabin and Jack found herself following him, her feet moving of their own volition. He stopped at the wall and glanced back over his shoulder at her, a slight frown appearing on his face and Jack stopped too, unwavering as she looked up at him. She realized that he hadn't expected for her to follow him and felt suddenly fearful.

She didn't want to be alone, not after being trapped inside that locker for so long and especially not after seeing all the damage that had been done to the passenger cabin.

"What's you're name, kid?" Riddick suddenly asked and Jack was startled by the dark rumble of his voice . It was the first time she'd ever heard him speak and she'd never expected him to actually talk to her.

_Voice sounds like slightly burnt toast...rough and dark...cinnamon toast...damn, I'm hungry...wait, he asked my name, right?_

"Jack," she answered after that second or so hesitation and he tilted his head slightly to the side.

"Sure you want to be following me around, Jack?" he inquired, that slight frown fading back into the same expressionless face he'd been wearing earlier. She blinked, then glanced around at the cabin and the damage once again before turning back to stare up at him.

"Don't think there's anyone else," she answered hesitantly and was surprised when he let out a low chuckle.

"No," he agreed, shaking his head. "There isn't."


	3. Shadows in the Noon Sun

**Darkness, Be My Friend**

Chapter Two : Shadows in the Noon Sun

_It figures that there's three suns in a place like this._

Riddick let out a low growl, glaring at the horizon through his goggles as he crouched down atop the ridge, waiting. Why he was waiting was a puzzle right then, he should have left the kid behind at the crash ship, but for some reason he found that he couldn't. The way she'd looked at him with those round green eyes of hers and how she'd thanked him for getting her out of that cryo-locker...

_Wasn't expecting it...no one's ever thanked me for anything before...stupid kid..._

He heard her scramble up the slope to stop somewhere to the left and downwards a bit and he could feel her staring at him. The kid had trailed him from the crashed passenger cabin to what was left of the flight deck buried in the sand at the beginning of a clump of dirt packed spires. The damage to that section of the ship wasn't as bad as the passenger cabin, but the minute he'd climbed inside Riddick had caught sight of one body. Judging from the jumpsuit, the body was that of a crew member. There had been two intact corpses inside there, their jumpsuits making them easily recognizable as a part of the crew.

It was the body of the pilot, or what was left of it, that led him to believe that there might be something else alive other than him and the kid. There was hardly anything left of it or the cockpit and nearly every surface was stained with blood. The window was entirely shattered, but the entire nose of that section had broken down into a sort of cavern from which he could hear a faint screeching sound.

Yes, there was definitely something else alive.

But the girl, Jack, hadn't said a word since they'd left the cabin and she continued to be silent even when she saw what remained of the ship's crew. While he had surveyed the damage he had watched her out of the corner of his eyes and, when she thought he wasn't looking, she had gone over to the body of the navigator and knelt down next to it. It was only later, as Riddick left to go back outside the ship that he saw what she had done. Before the dead man's eyes had been open to stare forever at nothing, but Jack, without a single qualm, had closed them.

It was a surprisingly adult act for someone who gave off this almost alarming amount of innocence.

And she had continued following him all the way here to this ridge without saying a word or asking any questions. She had to have known that he could have killed her any number of times in the hour that had passed; she'd looked like she'd recognized him from that gaping expression she'd had when he'd freed her from the locker. So she knew what he was yet she'd kept on walking after him.

Briefly he considered taking her life, just turning around and snapping her neck. It'd be quick; she wouldn't even know or see that it was coming. Besides, he didn't need some kid tailing him.

_Not just some kid...she's dressed up like a boy, must've been pretending to be one...no wondering why...eyes like those'd attract attention..._

Riddick shrugged the thoughts off and turned his attention to what lay bleaching in the sunlight beyond the ridge. Hundreds of skeletons ranging in dimension from the size of a small skiff to that of a large house, some falling apart with age. He heard a gasp to his left and saw that Jack had climbed up the last few feet to stare wide-eyed down at the bone yard.

"Wow," she breathed, glancing at up at him and then back, biting her lip again.

Riddick felt her eyes flick to him once more as he stood and started down the slope towards the bones. It took only a second before he heard the dislodging of stones as she scrambled to follow him down.

_Kid, you need to walk quieter..._

Riddick walked past one of the skeletons, casting a glance upwards at the bone ridges sticking out of the spine. He turned away, then stopped, noticing that he was no longer hearing the kid's footsteps. Shrugging inwardly, he kept moving, turning past the tail of another skeleton to investigate something he'd noticed from the ridge. It was the beginning wall of a canyon, the slopes cutting sharply upwards with spires similar to what he'd seen near the crash site sticking out near the top.

Movement out of the corner of his eye alerted him to Jack's returning presence, she'd somehow managed to climb up one to the skeletons near the wall. She was picking her way carefully over the back plates, stopping just a few steps past the highest point to look up at the sky. Silently, Riddick stepped down to the left, out of her field of vision, peripheral or otherwise, but keeping her in his sights none the less.

She didn't seem to be looking for him though, instead her gaze was focused off somewhere in the distance, beyond the canyon wall. Her pale face took on a puzzled frown and she raised a hand over her eyes, squinting and standing on her toes. It would be so easy to just leave her there in the bone yard right then; she'd never know where he'd have gone, wouldn't know which way to go even to get back to the crash site. Riddick was turning to leave, to drift back into the shadows of another skeleton, when he heard her shout.

"Hey! I see something!" Jack cried and he looked back, watching as she scrambled back down the skeleton, jumping down onto the ground when she got low enough. She glanced around, looking for him now, turning her head back and forth to scan the bones. Suddenly there was fear in her eyes again, just like before when he'd been about to leave her at the crash.

_Really doesn't like being alone, does she?_

She began walking between the skeletons, peering through the bones every which way, her steps drawing her closer to where he was standing. When she was less than three feet away he stepped out, coming up behind her while she was turned the other way.

"What did you see?" he asked, keeping his voice slightly lower than usual. Startled, she jumped, turning around to see him standing there, eyes widening in surprise. Riddick had to fight to keep a smile from creeping onto his face; the expression she wore was a strange combination of surprise and relief. Instead he kept his face in its usual uncaring scowl and stared down at her, waiting for her answer. "Well?"

"It looked like some kind of antenna," she told him, that startled look disappearing almost instantly. "Like a radio relay or something."

"Where?" Riddick asked, suddenly finding all of his attention on her.

"It's beyond the canyon I think," Jack answered, waving a hand towards the wall. "A little to the right maybe, but I saw it!"

_Yeah kid, you said that already._

Riddick stepped past her, heading towards the canyon, not bothering to look back to see if she followed. The answer to that particular question could be found in the footsteps that echoed after his own silent ones.

* * *

_He talked to me again...okay, so it was only five words, but at least he actually said something. That's what, three or four sentences in all?_

Jack trailed after Riddick, taking three steps for each of his longer strides, her shoes kicking up sand every so often because the soles were starting to peel away. Sooner or later they'd fall off completely and she'd have to find another pair; maybe this time she wouldn't have to steal them.

Her stomach growled, but she ignored it, she'd gone a lot longer without food before, even though technically she hadn't eaten anything in over five months. Cryo slowed down the digestive process along with everything else, so really it was more like a day and a half without food. That was just a mere fraction of the longest time she'd managed between meals, something she didn't want to repeat.

Jack looked up to see she'd fallen behind somewhat and increased her pace, jogging back to about three or so feet behind Riddick before she slowed down again. The canyon walls had risen up to several dozen feet above her head, those same spires sticking up even higher along the top.

_I wonder what those things are...they look like those termite mounds you see on the nature films about Earth..._

The spires abruptly thinned out as they reached a narrow portion of the canyon where another large skeleton loomed like a gate over the path. Jack glanced up at it momentarily before once again being forced to nearly run in order to keep up with Riddick. He walked so fast, it was rather amazing to her; she'd never expected anyone as tall and built as he was to be able to move so quickly.

It had scared her back at the bone yard when she'd lost sight of him, because there she was, surrounded by the skeletons of whatever those creatures had been in a place that seemed so hauntingly empty. Jack disliked being alone, even though she wasn't actually afraid of it; hell, sometimes it was a relief to be alone, but not here on this planet. It was too much of a dead place for her to feel comfortable enough to deal with being alone.

Jack had been relieved to find that Riddick hadn't left her in the bone yard, and her mood had lifted when he actually asked her what it was she had seen. She was happy to tell him despite the fact that he'd snuck up behind her and nearly made her jump out of her skin.

_He's so quiet...how does he do that?_

She found herself admiring him; the way he walked so casually yet seemed ready to strike at whatever danger might present itself. He looked so very strong, not like a body builder or something like that, but like someone who actually knew how to use his strength. It was easy to see how others could be scared or intimidated from his presence, he seemed to radiate this 'don't fuck with me' aura.

Jack's inner curiosity was urging her to voice all the questions that kept popping up in her head, but she knew that he wouldn't answer her if she did. He'd probably just give her a look and walk away; maybe even leave her behind and she didn't want that. So she shoved her curiosity concerning Riddick to the back of her mind and started focusing on where they were going.

The canyon walls were falling away now, leveling out into another flat plane of glaringly blinding sand. There was low rise, nothing more than a shallow hill, and beyond that was a collection of buildings, the greatest sight in the world just then. But that swelling bubble of happiness at this sign of civilization suddenly burst as she realized that this place, like the rest of the planet, was entirely empty.

"There's nobody there," she whispered, glancing up at Riddick. "It's all empty isn't it?"

* * *

_Empty...this place is more than empty...it's got the feeling of a graveyard... _

Riddick had walked from building to building, stopping only in the doorways to look inside before moving on to the next. The girl had followed him through the compound as well, though the glint in her eyes told him she wanted to explore further than just looking inside the doors. He could smell the curiosity coming off her in waves even though she tried to hide it by mimicking his apathetic scowl. It was only when he stopped to inspect a run-down vaporator near what might have once been a garden that she gave off any visible signs of curiosity.

"What's that?" Jack inquired of him as he knelt down to pry off one of the panels. Her voice sounded cautious, as if she was afraid he might get angry at her for asking a question. It was the first time he'd actually heard or felt anything akin to fear from her regarding his presence. He glanced at her and saw that she was biting her lip again.

"Vaporator," he told her with a frown, turning back to examine the panel. It was old, at least two decades, but otherwise in good condition. All he had to do was replace some of the external wiring. But the silence that had followed his answer to the kid's question drew his gaze back to her. She was still biting her lip, a nervous gleam in her eyes.

_What, is she afraid to ask questions?_

"Not going to bite your head off if you talk, kid."

Jack blinked, surprised, the hesitant glint dissipating somewhat, but not disappearing entirely.

"So, um, what's it do?" she asked, glancing up at the machine as he stood up.

"Pulls water from the air," Riddick explained, turning back towards compound. He frowned again, there was something reflective glinting in the sunlight beyond the metal storage sheds. He started towards it, aware that she had asked another question, but he ignored it, rounding the corner as she ran to catch up with him.

There, sitting just beyond the sheds, was the unmistakable yet slightly dented hull of a skiff. It was covered in dust and dirt from the wind picking up the sand from the ground, but otherwise it seemed to be in good repair. Riddick walked around the side, heading towards the open landing ramp and vaulting up it in nearly one stride, crossing the cramped cabin in another two steps.

_Old...but if it works..._

"Holy crap," came the whispered voice of Jack from the ramp.

He shot a glance back at her as he climbed into the pilot's seat; he'd almost forgotten she was there. Her steps were cautious as she climbed up the ramp, peering at the inside of the skiff, that same curiosity never more evident on her face. She came up behind him, watching over his shoulder as he tried to get one of the main computers running. None of the screens lit up, so he stood, stepping away from the pilot's chair.

Jack scrambled out of his way, hopping onto the left line of auxiliary seats as he knelt down and lifted up one of the grated floor panels. There was a ninety-gig standard cel beneath the floor, but the little green light that usually indicated a charge was dead.

"Fuck," he cursed, slamming the panel back down with more force than was completely necessary. He looked up to see Jack staring at him, a questioning flicker in her eye, but she was biting her lip again so he knew she wouldn't voice it. The girl's mannerisms were surprisingly easy to read. "You going to say something, kid?"

"No power," she whispered in response and he nodded, standing up again. Riddick walked back outside, recalling the power cells back at the crash site. He hadn't inspected them up close, but it was more than likely that they still worked and if so, he could rig up an adapter. Jack trailed after him, stopping at the edge of the ramp to look out at the buildings of the compound before voicing a chilling question. "We're going to die here, aren't we?"

Riddick turned to stare at her, and saw a strange expression on her face. She was staring at him with a hopeful look, as if seeking an assurance that her question wasn't true, but the glint in her green eyes was one of despair. On the inside it seemed she had already accepted death, but it was the fact that she'd come across that conclusion so quickly that threw him off.

Jack couldn't be any older than thirteen and she was already contemplating her own death; while it wasn't exactly a weakness per se, it was a sign of deep trouble. And for some reason Riddick didn't like seeing that look in her eyes.

"No," he told her quietly, turning back away. "We're not going to die here."


	4. Inside a Ghost Town

**Darkness, Be My Friend**

Chapter Three : Inside a Ghost Town

Somewhere in the main building of the compound, Jack had piled a small collection of her findings in the middle of the dust coated floor. There were several slightly dented cans of various foods, two of the miniature solar contraptions that were all around the place, more than a dozen cred chips, some drinking mugs, and a full set of stainless steel silverware. Sighing to herself, she picked up one of the food cans and frowned, examining the label before snatching up one of the butter-knives from the entangled pile of forks and spoons.

She jabbed the knife into one edge of the can, prying up the tin top with almost a practiced ease. In truth she'd done this exact thing at least a hundred times before, sneaking extra food back at her old foster home; she couldn't have used the can opener in the middle of the night, it would have woken everyone up and she would have gotten a beating. Once the top popped off, she raised the contents up to her nose and sniffed it to see if was still viable as an edible substance.

_Doesn't smell bad...peaches, don't really like them but hey, food is food..._

Jack shrugged and downed half the contents in one gulp, licking her lips before scarfing down the remainder at a more leisurely pace, digging out the chunks with her fingers. Once she'd finished that off, having licked her hands clean, she reached for another can and opened it up, noting that this time it was more of a mix of fruit than just peaches. She looked at the contents for a moment, then picked up another can and tucked it under her arm before grabbing up one of the mugs and heading outside.

The blue sun that had been rising earlier was pretty much in the middle of the sky now, bathing the compound in bright bluish white light. The glare of it bouncing off the sand was almost too much for her eyes and she had to squint as she walked out from the small corridor of buildings. She paused a few feet away from the vaporator and observed as Riddick reattached some of the wires, stepping back as the thing whirred to life.

"I found a cup," Jack announced as he turned his head slightly to show that he had noticed her presence. She walked over, holding it out to him and he took it without a word, setting it down under the small faucet on one side of the vaporator. Crouching down next to it, he looked back over at her as she sat down where she stood, dropping the unopened can and the butterknife on the ground. She glanced over at him and held out the opened can of mixed fruit, smiling slightly. "Found some food too."

To her surprise he smiled back, albeit a half-smile, taking the can from her silently as he had with the mug. She watched as he ate, not bothering to dig the fruit out like she had but simply gulping it down in less time than it had taken for her to open it. He set the can aside when he had finished and eyed the unopened one, so Jack picked it up and pried the top off, conscious of him watching her. Once the can was open she held it out, but this time he didn't take it, just looked at her and Jack subconsciously bit her lip.

"What's wrong?"

"You should eat, kid," he told her and Jack's smile widened.

"I already had one and besides, there's like a dozen more," she informed him, nodding at the buildings. "Can't believe there's so much stuff still in this place and nobody here."

"That's because they're all dead," Riddick said in approximately the tone of someone who was simply discussing the weather, taking the can from her and peering at the contents.

"Dead?" Jack echoed, eyes going wide. "But how do you know that? I mean, there're no bodies or anything, its just all empty."

"Can smell it," he replied with an uncaring shrug. Jack stared at him as her mind spun over the answer.

_That's kind of creepy…_

* * *

Riddick watched the kid's expression change as he finished off the can of fruit she'd given him. He had a pretty good idea of what might have happened; whatever had desecrated the body of the pilot had more than likely killed off everyone who'd been living in this place. Her question about the bodies though, that bothered him. If it was some kind of creature there should have at least been something left; no predator in the known universe took everything from its prey. 

_And humans don't count…_

He would have laughed at that thought but the sound of dripping water caught his attention. Tossing the empty fruit can aside, he turned back towards the vaporator and watched as the faucet slowly dripped a steady stream of water into the mug the girl had brought out. He waited until it was nearly full before picking it up, ignoring the dusty quality of the water as he took a gulp; water was water.

Riddick felt a pair of eyes staring at him as he drank and lowered the cup from his mouth to cast a sideways glance at Jack. She was biting her lip again, but when she saw him looking her way she turned and pretended like she hadn't been staring, bending down to pick up the empty cans. He frowned for a moment, turning his eyes from her to the now half-empty mug of water, then back; something that felt like confusion at the back of his mind.

"Here kid," he muttered after a moment, holding the cup out towards Jack.

Dropping the cans again, Jack stared at him for one long moment before slowly taking the cup, as if she expected him to rescind the offer. She took a drink, still watching him, then lowered the cup and smiled like she had before; if this place'd had any kind of darkness in it that smile would have lit it up like a candle. It made the confusion in Riddick's head increase; no one had ever smiled at him like that before. Hell, no one ever smiled at him for any reason except maybe the payday on his head and this kid was way too young to be a merc, way to young to be concerned with that amount of money.

"Thank you," Jack whispered, taking another drink before holding the cup back out; there was still some water in it.

"Keep it," Riddick told her, standing up. It was the second time she'd thanked him and it felt strange, like those words couldn't possibly mean what they were supposed to mean. He started to walk away, glancing off towards a tarp covered overhang off one of the side buildings were therein lay the intact framework of solar-powered sandcat. It looked to be in pretty good shape and if he could get it running then the only thing he'd have to worry about was whether or not enough of the power cels back at the crash were intact.

"Hey, wait up!" the girl called from behind him and he let out a slightly irritated sigh.

_More than one thing to worry about._

She caught up with him and he noticed the cup was gone; she must have left it at the vaporator for it to refill. Riddick stopped to look at her, noting that she was nervous again, almost as if she wasn't sure what reaction her words might get.

_Now that's definitely not something to do with me…_

"Got something to say kid?" he asked, looking down at her.

"Uh, there's more food and stuff," Jack answered hesitantly, pausing to see if he would say anything to that, but Riddick just waited for her to go on. "Should I maybe put it on the skiff or something?"

"You do that," he said with a short nod, frowning when she bit her lip again. The place where her teeth met skin was beginning to bruise slightly and if she applied anymore pressure it was going to start bleeding. Jack didn't seem to notice though and backed away almost as soon as he answered. Riddick watched her until she disappeared into one of the buildings, a question replacing the confusion at the back of his mind.

* * *

_Twenty-two._

Jack frowned down at the pile of fruit cans she'd found as she contemplated the number, turning it over in her head. It was the exact same number of cans in the pile as well as the last marked date on the chrono sheet calender hanging from three loose screws on the wall. For some reason the number gave off a bad feeling in her head and in the pit of her stomach, which was strange because usually when she thought of unlucky numbers it was either the classic thirteen or her own personal nine.

Shaking the feeling away, she knelt down next to the pile of cans and set about counting them out into two separate piles. She figured that she could more than likely subsist on one can a day and Riddick on two, so she counted out the piles accordingly. One of for every two, leaving her with a pile of seven and a pile of fourteen with one can left over; the equivilant of seven days.

_A week…damn…well maybe a half a can a day for me, I mean, I've lived off less…_

Sighing, she gathered up as many cans as she could carry and stepped out the door into the glaring sunlight. The blue sun was beginning to set now, casting strange shadows in between the buildings as she made her way out towards the skiff. Glancing down at the sand as she walked, Jack noticed that her shoes weren't leaving any footprints in the dirt.

_Strange…this whole place is just strange…_

Reaching the skiff, she climbed up inside and set the cans down on the metal floor, looking around. The grated floor reminded her of ship she'd stowed away in once, the floors in the cargo hold had been grated, covering enough space for her to crawl under when the crew came in to lock things down. They'd found her near the end of the trip and had threatened to throw her out the airlock, but they had instead turned her over to the authorities at Jericho Station.

That was how she'd ended up on the Hunter-Gratzner in the first place. The authorities had decided to send her back to where it'd be easier for someone to find her family. They hadn't wanted to deal with some runaway kid and they hadn't cared to listen to her protests; no one cared what would happen if she did get sent back home. They'd booked her the cheapest last-minute ticket on that ship and just look at what had happened; it had crashed and they probably didn't even feel guilty about it.

_Probably don't even know about it yet…_

With a grim expression on her face, Jack began stacking the cans under one of the seats, glancing outside as she did so. She couldn't see where Riddick had gone to and that made her slightly uneasy; she didn't like this place and the uncertainty of whether or not he had ditched her was starting to wreak havoc on her nerves. He was strange, maybe the strangest person she'd ever met, but she didn't think he was as bad as the news reports made him out to be.

Compared to every other person she'd known in her twelve years of existance, he was the first one to actually react as if she was real and not something in the background of the world. Most people treated her and anyone else under the age of seventeen like they didn't matter or even exist in the same reality as them. Jack had even been told as much on more than one occasion; that she was the equivalent of the empty candy bar wrapper floating down the side of the street, unsightly and therefore ignored.

It was only when she was in trouble that she got acknowledged and it ended up with all the worst things; bruises and scars, both physical ones and mental ones burned into her soul. Her first reaction to someone speaking to her or her talking to someone else was the expectation of punishment. Biting her lip was something that came out of this habit, she barely noticed that she did it anymore.

Standing up again, she hopped out of the skiff to see that Riddick hadn't left; he was messing around with the sandcat under one of the tarp covered awnings. Smiling to herself, Jack started back towards the buildings to collect the rest of the food, pushing thoughts of the past as far from her mind as she could get them. This arrangement of memories, however, was only temporary; it would only be a matter of time before they came seeping back between the cracks of her consciousness.


	5. Within the Here and Now

**Darkness, Be My Friend**

Chapter Four : Within the Here and Now

The sandcat was actually in better condition than Riddick expected; all he had to do to get it working was clear the dust and debris from where half the awning it was housed under had collapsed. The transparent plexiglass bubble that covered the solar panels had collected a fine film of dust, the kind you only get when mud dries. This was puzzling, as it went along with the evidence of water damage to the buildings he'd noted earlier; and those skeletons in the bone yard had possessed features that hinted at aquatic life.

_This place has three fucking suns, they had to use a vaporator as a supply of water... no way anything bigger than maybe a pet fish could live out here..._

Riddick ran a hand over his head, noting that he needed to shave and letting out a slight laugh at the thought. He sat back in the driver's seat of the sandcat, frowning out at the landscape; his eyes fell on the skiff and saw the girl climbing down the ramp, having deposited, not a third load of cans but a collection of what appeared to be water-filled containers. He wondered how much food there actually was and guessed that she may have been exaggerating the amount. There couldn't be much more than twenty, twenty-five cans at the most; a settlement like this would grow its own food, as evidenced by the dead gardens.

Which brought back this little problem; alone, Riddick knew he could survive any number of days subsisting on the bare minimum but the kid... He shook his head and stood up, absently cracking his neck. Knowing your own limits was a part of survival and surviving was something that he was very good at; second only to his uncanny knack for escaping the inescapable.

Riddick crossed the sand to the smallest building where Jack had disappeared to after dropping off the cans. He stopped at the doorway; she was crouched next to a spindly display of colored globes and miniature lamps powered by a single whirling solar panel in the light of the window. It was a solar system model, guessing from the way the different arms spun around; there was a large planet stationed in the very middle in a slightly tilted elliptical orbit and a bigger ringed orb near the outside.

Two lamps circled each other on one side of the mobile while a third blue lamp kept pace in opposition. But between them all was one small planet, plodding along almost in time to the clicks of the spinning gears.

"There's not enough food," Jack said quietly, keeping her gaze on the mobile, the light from the miniature blue sun illuminating her face as it passed by. "I mean, there's maybe two weeks, a little more than two weeks worth, but that's it."

Riddick frowned, leaning back against the door, listening to the clicking sound of the spinning model.

"How many cans are there?" he inquired, glancing back outside towards the skiff.

"Twenty-two," she answered softly and the gears to the mobile ceased their movement.

_That's a week and a half, not two weeks..._

"How do you figure, two weeks?" Riddick asked, turning his head to look back at the girl. Jack blinked, opening her mouth to say something, but shutting it quickly in favor of biting her lip again. His frown deepened at her actions, it annoyed him now, if only because it brought back the confusion from before. "What, you planning on not eating?"

The look on her face told him that he was more than half-right in that respect. This girl did know her own limits when it came to food and he berated himself for thinking otherwise; Jack was a runaway, that much had been obvious already. It only served to confuse him more as he realized that she'd rationed out her portion of the food so that he could have more.

_Who does something like that? Puts strain on their own survival for someone else...doesn't make sense..._

Then his eyes fell on the mobile; it was frozen in place, the light from the three miniature suns still glowing eerily in Jack's face. But the little globes representing the planets had arranged themselves into one line, the smaller one in between the two larger completely obscured from the light. There was a counter on the underneath of the mobile; Riddick stepped away from the wall, crouching down next to the girl to see it clearer.

_Twenty-two..._

"There was a calendar in the bigger building," Jack whispered and he could feel her eyes on him. "It had the system year conversions, sixty to twenty-two. At least, that was the last mark on there..."

She trailed off as he turned his head to stare at her; there was now a small bleeding cut in her lip from her teeth.

"You're not afraid of the dark, are you?" Riddick asked, unable to keep the taunting edge out of his voice. The girl seemed to contemplate the question, eyes falling on the mobile and its simulated eclipse.

"I don't know," she whispered, smiling faintly and shaking her head before looking back at him. "Are you?"

* * *

_...Shouldn't have said that..._

Jack watched as Riddick stood up again, stepping silently out the door and walking a few feet off before glancing back at her. She took it to mean that she should follow, so she quickly scrambled up and ran out after him. She stopped just a few feet short of where he stood, shoes kicking up dust with the motion; he was frowning again, she could tell even though he wasn't looking at her.

_...Yeah, shouldn't have said that...now he's mad at me..._

"You need to be quieter," Riddick commented with a slight growling edge in his tone.

"What?" Jack asked, startled. She'd expected him to say something else; perhaps some scathing statement about how he didn't have any reason to be afraid where as she had many. Instead she'd gotten a comment on her walking habits; Riddick glanced back over his shoulder at her.

"Could hear you from a mile away, kid," he informed her before continuing on towards the sandcat. "Walk quieter, you'll live longer."

Jack wasn't sure if Riddick was trying to be cryptic in that statement or if it was just his way of giving advice. Preferring to take it for the latter, she cautiously followed him back to the awning with the sandcat, trying not to make any noise when she walked. It took some concentration, but in the few dozen steps she made she couldn't even hear her own footfalls.

"Still heard you," Riddick told her, breaking her concentration and startling her all at once.

Jack looked up, frowning at him, but her frown disappeared when she saw the amused grin on his face. It was an actual smile, not a half-one like he'd given her earlier; it made her feel slightly abashed and a faint flush creeped its way onto her face. He didn't seem to notice her embarrassment and instead climbed behind the wheel of the sandcat.

Clambering into the back of the vehicle under the roll bars, Jack watched as he toggled the different switches and the engine whirred silently to life. The cart moved surprisingly fast, so she found herself holding onto one of the support bars as they drove out of the settlement back towards the canyon.

_We're going back to the crash? Why?_

Jack didn't voice that question, but instead turned so her back was facing the front wall of the sandcat's bed and her feet were pointing towards the back end of the vehicle. She watched as the wheels left tracks in the dirt, the treads and weight of the vehicle making it possible to leave a mark. A small pain suddenly cut through her stomach, and she grunted, dragging her knees up to her chest; she felt her insides cramping up and closed her eyes.

_As if this couldn't get any worse... _

It took little less than an hour to reach the crash site again and Jack was thankful that Riddick didn't pull the sandcat up to the passenger cabin. She never wanted to see another cryo-locker ever again.

Jumping out the back as Riddick climbed out of the driver's seat, Jack glanced about at the spires surrounding the outside of this section of the crashed ship. They looked more than a little eerie to her now and she shivered despite herself, moving to follow Riddick inside. He went towards one of the back sections of the ship and Jack started to follow until she noticed something strange.

When they had looked around here earlier there had been a body, one of the crew members, lying on the floor. She remembered because she had closed the man's eyes, mimicking what she'd seen in a movie somewhere. The body was gone now and the place where it had been held a stain that looked identical to blood; in fact it wasn't just one stain, there was a whole trail leading towards the front of the ship, the part buried under the sand. There was a faint scratching noise emanating from the shadows beyond the fallen ladder, and Jack felt another shiver run down her spine.

_Something's down there... _

* * *

A ship like the Hunter-Gratzner took twelve twenty gig cels to power everything from the computer systems to the main drives. There were seven left intact after the crash and that was more than enough needed to power the skiff. Riddick pulled the manual release switches on one before pulling it out and hefting it over one shoulder. He pulled out a second cell and carried the two of them back outside, dumping them into the back of the sandcat.

Not even pausing a step, he turned and went back inside the ship, intent on getting the next two cells, but halfway there he stopped, sensing a strange undercurrent in the atmosphere. Frowning, he turned back towards the front of the ship and reached up, pushing his goggles away from his eyes. It was dim enough to see comfortably here, especially since the automatic lights from the ship's control panels had been damaged in the crash. He saw a light, though, down near where he'd found the scattered remains of the pilot; the girl had evidently found herself a working flashlight.

_Careful kid... _

Shaking his head and replacing his goggles, he went and pulled out two more of the cels, carrying them back out to the sandcat with minimal effort. Thirty-five kilos was next to nothing to him; he could easily lift twice his own weight without trying. He set them in the back with the other two, casting a glance at the two suns rising on the horizon before quickly turning back inside.

Riddick was just pulling out the last power cel when a scream cut through the air.


	6. Monsters Under the Bed

**Darkness, Be My Friend**

Chapter Five : Monsters Under the Bed

It had happened almost too quick for Jack's mind to register, but that was the key word, almost. If she had been a half-second slower she would have been skewered; it had scared her badly, having the flashlight knocked out of her hands, but in the bright flash as the bulb shattered she'd seen it. That was when she'd screamed, to have that nightmarish image burned into the back of her retinas in one lightning flash of a moment; she had jumped back as quick as she could.

The thing was huge with a diamond-shaped mouth that was nothing but razors stained red with blood. It had a curved up skull with two protrusions on each side somewhat resembling that of a hammerhead shark, which was a creature she'd only seen in books. This creature, however, possessed scythe-like claws that it was even now scraping over the cover of her hiding place, trying to pry her out.

Jack couldn't see it, but she could hear the scrapes and the small screeches it was making above her. She had managed to get beneath one of the floor panels, so now the only thing between her and that thing was the steadily denting metal floor. She refused to scream again, however, because she knew with certainty that, if she was going to die, she wasn't going to do it screaming.

Pain cut through her stomach and she let out a small grunt, her body automatically trying to curl into a ball. Her knees hit the metal above her and she let out a soft curse, forcing back tears at the sting of torn skin.

_Hate this...hurts..._

The pain faded after a moment and Jack took in a deep breath, wincing as the creature slammed its claws into the covering of her hiding place. The metal was dented now, it would only be a matter of time before it broke through.

Feeling around the small crawl space, she felt a metal bar on the left side of her and yanked it towards her, desperate for some kind of weapon to let her fight back if, no, when it broke through. She was startled to find her haven suddenly light up with a ghostly greenish-blue glow; evidently the fiber-optic cables still worked just fine. Something slammed into the wall above her hiding place with a violent crash and Jack heard the creature screech in what sounded like pain, followed by a shout; her heart froze in her chest as she heard it.

_Riddick...oh shit..._

Jack scrambled around under the floor back to the ripped open panels, unaware that she was dragging the fiber-optic cable with her. She peeked out from the hole and saw the creature turning away from the wall, one clawed arm hanging limply at its side as if it had been crushed; there was some kind of blue substance dripping from it. Standing opposite the creature was Riddick, looking altogether menacing even though he was unarmed; his goggles were pushed up and for the first time Jack got a look at his eyes.

_Silver..._

She almost forgot the danger of the situation, staring at his eyes, but she was snapped out of that trance when he spoke.

"Get moving," he pronounced each word as a separate sentence, not taking his gaze from the creature. "Now, Jack. MOVE!"

Hefting herself out of the crawl space, Jack nearly tripped when suddenly the thing let out a shrieking scream; she turned in time to see it crash its head into the wall, grey skin rippling as if something were burning it. A strong hand closed over Jack's shoulder, dragging her backwards and out of the front end of the ship. She was vaguely aware that she still had a hold of the fiber-optic cable, but when she went to drop it, Riddick shouted at her.

"Don't you fucking dare drop that!"

* * *

He hadn't meant to yell at her, not really, but shouting was basically the only communication that could be allowed right then. The thing was following him as he dragged the girl away, the only thing keeping it from lunging straight forward was the glow of the fiber optic cable that Jack clung to now with death grip. He could smell her fear and it carved a knot in the pit of his stomach, a knot that he partially knew the reason for.

Five minutes he had crouched there, watching the creature scrabbling and scratching at the floor in an attempt to get at the girl. He had listened to its screeches and had listened for another frightened scream from Jack, but she had stayed silent. It had unnerved him; any other person in her current position would be scared shitless, calling for help, begging. She wasn't doing either and he knew she wasn't dead; the only smell of death was old and stale now.

Riddick had contemplated leaving her right then; it would have been simple, letting the creature kill her instead of facing the decision of killing her himself. Then he had remembered how quickly she had accepted the fact that she'd die here on this planet when the skiff had appeared to be useless. That memory, still fresh in his head, of that despairing glint in her eyes mixing with the faux hope in her expression, stirred him into action.

He had caught the thing by surprise, slamming it into the wall; there had been an audible crack as the its arm snapped against the metal. He didn't remember shouting or the creature's shrieks until he heard the girl climbing out from the crawl space beneath the floor. The thing had spun back towards them, but it didn't turn to the obvious threat, but back to the girl; the smell of her monthly blood was even more evident now than when he had first caught the scent.

_Blood...they go on blood..._

Every instinct he had was telling him to dump the girl and get the hell away from there; but he dragged her back out to the sandcat, out into the sunlight where the creature wouldn't follow. She let out a startled cry when he dropped her in with the power cels, banging her elbow against the back wall. Her lip was still bleeding from earlier and now her shirt and pants were ripped, but other than that she seemed to be okay; she hadn't just grabbed a single fiber-optic cable, but the entire generator, clutching it close like a life-line.

Her eyes were set past Riddick's shoulder, towards the shadows of the ship; the silhouette of the diamond jawed monster lurked just outside of the light, waiting. Riddick looked over his shoulder, frowning; he could see it better than the kid, even with the sunlight stabbing with pins and needles at his eyes. There was another problem presented by the presence of the creature, however; The last power cel was still inside the ship and it now blocked all access.

* * *

She wanted to close her eyes and just curl up into a ball, will everything to just go away, but she couldn't take her gaze off that thing. It was watching her, she could tell even without knowing where it's own eyes were; it was waiting to get her and that wasn't the worst of it. There was a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach, not from her monthly pains but something far worse.

_Its starting...the darkness..._

"Stay here," Riddick's dark voice suddenly cut through her thoughts.

Jack tore her gaze from the monster in the darkness and gaped at him, eyes widening in disbeleif. She didn't even have any time to protest; one second he was there, the next he had vanished into the shadows of the ship and she was alone in the sandcat with the soon to be waning sunlight. She glanced at the horizon and saw a thin line of shifting darkness cutting across the sky, rising steadily towards the red and gold suns.

Glancing around, Jack paused to stare at the nearest spires, that ominous feeling increasing ten fold; she hugged the generator closer, biting her lip and tasting blood. She turned to look at the sandcat's cargo, counting the four power cels with a small surge of hope; it was cut short as an unearthly howl snapped her attention back to the ship.

Without thinking, Jack scrambled out of the back, stumbling in the dirt a little as one of the fiber-optic cords was tangled around her leg. She kicked it off and started towards the ship, pausing only to pick up a bent metal bar from the outside wreckage. Brandishing it like a baseball bat, she stepped slowly into the shadows and paused, ready to jump back into the light if something decided to jump out at her.

Nothing happened, so she stepped in farther, taking in a deep breath; her foot hit something soft and she gasped to see the crumpled corpse of one of the creatures, head twisted at a bizarre angle. A faint screech greeted her ears and Jack froze, turning to look in the direction of the noise. Another of the creatures was lurking just beyond a fallen section of ceiling panels; back turned and focused on something just out of sight.

_Oh shit..._

On a whim, Jack bent down and picked up a stray chunk of debris; she hurled it at the monster, striking it in the shoulder. The creature spun towards her, distracted from its current quarry by this new threat; this time around, however, Jack didn't scream. She watched as the thing prepared to lunge at her and refused to even blink when Riddick stepped forward, snapping the creature's neck as he had the other.

He looked pissed off and annoyed; she guessed the reason for it was that she hadn't listened to him, but he didn't say anything at all. Jack watched as he bent down and picked up another power cel, hefting it over his shoulder before heading towards the door. She followed, still holding on to her makeshift baseball bat, the taste of blood in her mouth as she bit her lip again.

It was still bright out, but that line of darkness she had spotted on the horizon had risen further into the sky; it was towards this that Riddick was looking when Jack climbed up into the back of the sandcat, his goggles back down around his eyes. He still looked angry and now she saw that there was a gash on his shoulder, dripping blood down his arm.

"Sorry," Jack whispered, turning away; she was aware that this mess was more than likely her fault. She felt his gaze on her but didn't look up, instead she pulled her knees up to her chest, hugging them close and bowing her head.

"Kid, you've got nothing to be sorry for," Riddick said after a moment, and Jack glanced up at him as he passed by the side of the sandcat. She watched as he climbed back into the driver's seat, but her gaze was drawn to the horizon. Another line of darkness had appeared parallel with the sand, thickening ever so slightly with each passing second; she turned her eyes back to Riddick to see that his usual apathetic expression had returned. "Let's get the fuck out of here."


	7. Racing a Surreal Sunset

**Darkness, Be My Friend**

Chapter Six : Racing a Surreal Sunset

The line of darkness that was the ringed planet rose at an almost tauntingly slow pace across the sky as Riddick drove the sandcat across the desert floor. The solar powered engine was spinning as fast as it could go, but he knew it wasn't fast enough. In the back bed of the sandcat Jack sat, holding onto the roll bar with one hand and the generator with the other, knuckles white and eyes squenched shut.

The cels rolled against her whenever the vehicle turned, until they reached the downside of the ridge before the boneyard; that heavy jolt of the slope caused the cels to basically wedge themselves together, trapping the girl against the bottom of the roll cage. She grunted, but didn't complain; Riddick wouldn't have done anything if she had anyways. They couldn't afford to stop for anything, not now, not with the shadows growing and the very real threat of those diamond jawed monsters waiting in the darkness.

Jack's question from before came back to him as he pulled the sandcat into the start of the canyon, the first ring of the eclipsing planet starting to obscure the golden glow of the first sun. All around them a thousand screeching wails erupted, echoing along the canyon walls. The solar panels began to spin slower in their little bubble, the engine speed dropping down a notch.

Riddick was not afraid of the dark, there had never before been a reason to be, especially not with his eyes. Not even now, with these nightmarish creatures waiting to pounce when the lights vanished, did he feel even the least bit of fear concerning himself. The girl was afraid though, he could smell it; she was afraid of the monsters but brave enough to face them.

_Who does that, puts their own survival on the line for someone else...she does..._

No one he'd ever met before acted like this kid; fearful and courageous, nervously quiet but curious all the same. She was different and that alone was strange; she'd smiled over a simple thing like a cup of water. Even now that one half of his mind where instinct ruled was shouting for him to get rid of her, the creatures would follow her blood; but he was cut and bleeding as well so the argument wasn't so strong.

Besides, she had smiled and he wanted to know why. It would have been funny, driving through that canyon with the waning light and the thousands of echoing howls of who knew how many creatures waiting to rip them apart; here he was thinking about some stupid kid.

"OH SHIT!" her shout cut through his thoughts.

There was no need to search extensively for the source of Jack's exclamation. The spires atop the canyon walls had burst open, spewing forth a churning black cloud of hatchlings, miniature versions of the larger diamond jawed demons. They swarmed through the air, shrieking and wailing as they soared first upwards into the faux dusk caused by the ringed planet. Then they came crashing down into the canyon behind the sandcat, barreling towards the dying vehicle.

It clicked in a single instant, seeing that roaring tornado of teeth and claws bearing down on them; he was not going to leave her to this.

Riddick swung out of the driver's seat and grabbed Jack by the collar of her shirt, yanking her out of the back and down to the ground. She let out a startled cry, but didn't struggle when he shoved her beneath the undercarriage of the sandcat; not a second later the whirling storm of hatchlings came with the force of a hurricane. He dropped to the dirt just in time, tearing off his goggles to watch the miniature beasts screech and zigzag in unison through the air, searching for anything and everything edible in their flight paths, even themselves.

They avoided the glow from the fiber-optics, however, showing the same aversion to the light as the bigger one back at the crash ship. It made a certain sense, in a twisted sort of way; these things were truly nocturnal.  
The cloud of hatchlings dissipated after one long moment, but Riddick stayed still, listening to the echoes along the canyon walls. He heard Jack stir under the sandcat and snapped out a hand, grabbing her arm as she started to crawl out from under the wheels.

"Wait," he growled, eyeing the head of the canyon. The screeches and howls of the hatchlings were growing again; he felt the muscles in the girl's arms tense as she heard them. "Wait."

* * *

Jack closed her eyes and pressed her face into the curve of her free arm, trying not to be afraid and failing miserably. She could still feel Riddick's hand around her otherarm, it was the only thing keeping her from bolting. She forced herself not to move as that cloud of teeth and claws passed over them again, shrieking and wailing.

It seemed like forever, pressed into the dirt with nothing between her and certain death but the sandcat and Riddick's hand. Then the noise of the tornado of hatchlings disappeared completely and Jack found herself being pulled back out from under the vehicle. It was almost completely dark now, the only light was the green-blue glow of the fiber-optic cables and their generator.

She could see his eyes again, mercurial pinpricks in the shadows of the canyon walls, vanishing every now and then when he blinked. They flicked back and forth, as if he were surveying the darkness and Jack felt a sudden wave of fear wash over her.

_He's going to leave now..._

Jack wasn't stupid; she knew the unwritten code of survival was to look after yourself first, so she knew that she was going to die. Maybe if this was the streets back on Dulroon or even Old Earth, she would have had a better chance; after all, being a part of the trash littered scenery was her expertise. There were lights there, enough for her to see by anyways, but here there was only the fiber-optic glow and those two silver orbs.

She would either die by the teeth of those creatures for their evening meal or by Riddick's hands for the convenience of his survival. He didn't look at her, but instead climbed onto the back of the sandcat, moving the generator aside to get at the cels. Jack stepped closer to the side of the vehicle, watching him in the glow as he pried up the plexiglass bubble encasing the now dead solar collector.

_What is he doing that for?_

Before she could voice the question, however, there was an ghostly wail from above the canyon walls followed closely by a second and a third, until the air was filled with the cries of an innumerable amount of inhuman voices. Jack looked up, but couldn't see past the darkness; but she could imagine and in her mind's eye she saw the hammerheaded monster from the ship staring back down at her.

"Get in the light," Riddick's growl snapped her attention back and she gulped, scrambling into the back of the sandcat with him.

Now she could see what he was doing more clearly; the wires had been pulled out from the solar unit and he was now prying apart the small panel on the side of one of the power cels. The screeching grew louder and Jack shuddered, pulling her knees up to her chest in an attempt to curl up into a ball. She was slightly stunned when she suddenly found a coil of fiber-optic cable draped around her shoulders; she quickly turned to look at Riddick, but his back was to her.

Jack smiled for a second, but the grin faded when out of the blackness swooped a familiarly terrifying shape. It shrieked and landed in the sand on the edge of the glow, turning its head this way and that before settling itself to stare in Jack's direction. She could see its tail swishing and its teeth within its flexing diamond jaw.

_Oh shit...its looking right at me..._

A second one landed next to the first, letting out a wail as it did so; Jack shivered and closed her eyes, entwining one arm through the cable, pulling the light closer.

* * *

The wires were relatively easy to match up, though the job a was a little clumsy; Riddick didn't care at this point, it was this or nothing. He could hear the girl behind him, her breathing coming up short and her heart beating faster from fear; he had turned and dropped the light around her for some reason. She had calmed somewhat at that, allowing him to finish the makeshift rewiring; but he could also hear the creatures, the bigger ones, howling just outside this small haven of light.

He growled, checking the wiring one last time before swinging himself into the driver's seat. There were two of them, crouching and clicking their claws; one was turned towards Jack, but the second seemed to be debating whether Riddick would make a better meal. Flicking up the power switch, he put the sandcat into gear, pleased to hear the engine sputter silently into life again.

"Hold on," he said darkly, directing the remark over his shoulder.

He didn't wait to make sure she had heard him, but floored it, the wheels spinning up dust and gravel as the vehicle pulled away. The canyon stretched around a curve and there was the rib cage awning spanning between the walls; they were almost there. The top edge of the roll cage caught one of the bony protrusions at the edge, knocking the entire mass down behind them in an avalanche of rock and bones.

Riddick ignored it and kept driving, the walls of the canyon around them stretching out and downwards; the low rise just before the settlement was just ahead of them and beyond that, the skiff. The sandcat jolted as it reached the top, bouncing over a stray junk of rock; the engine shutdown for the second time, the wiring coming loose.

_Fuck!_

But they were on an downside of the slope, so the vehicle kept on rolling, even gaining a little more speed before hitting the level plane of sand. Off to the side a group of the creatures ran by, shrieking at the intrusion of the light to their newly darkened world. The sandcat was slowing as they approached the buildings, losing momentum without the push of the engine.

Riddick could see the skiff now, it was sitting just beyond one of the metal storage sheds; but the back-left wheel of the sandcat suddenly snagged itself on something, a stray peice of outdoor furniture from the settlement. The vehicle snapped to a halt and Jack let out a shout, falling out of the back along with two of the cels. The generator fell crashing on top of her, the green-blue glow of the cables flickering for an unsteady moment.

Jumping out of the front of the sandcat, Riddick quickly grabbed out the wire stripped cel, securing it in one arm before heaving another over his shoulder; he'd have to come back for the rest.

"Get up," he commanded of Jack and she scrambled to her feet, the glowing cable still looped around her shoulder. "Carry that."

He nodded at the generator and turned, not bothering to see if she would listen; he was more than a hundred percent certain that she would. He didn't run; the kid would not have been able to keep up if he did and his shoulder was still bleeding. Riddick could see the outlines of them out there, watching for a weakness, waiting for a misstep.

_Sorry to disappoint..._

Rounding the edge of the storage shed, he slowed, glancing over his shoulder at Jack; she had hefted the generator over her shoulder, mimicking the way he carried the cels, luminescent cable wrapped around her waist. Her pale face was twisted into a determined expression, teeth gritted and eyes narrowed as she followed him; she must have sensed him looking at her, for she raised her head and met his eye. She stopped moving, a fearfully expectant look appearing on her face; Riddick recognized that expression, he'd seen it in the eyes of every person that had died by his hand.

_She thinks I'm going to kill her..._

There was an eerie calmness around the girl even with that doomed glint in her eyes; she was always expecting her own death, Riddick realized. He turned back towards the skiff and its lowered ramp, waiting for its passengers.

"Keep moving."


	8. One Last Glimpse at Hell

**Darkness, Be My Friend**

Chapter Seven : One Last Glimpse at Hell

Jack crouched on one of the auxiliary seats, watching as Riddick hooked the first two power cels up to the skiff's electrical system. The lights flickered on overhead but not outside, two power cels weren't enough for the external lamps. She felt a sense of releif wash over her; they were going to make it. She watched silently as he stood up and stepped back down the ramp, picking up the generator in one hand while looping the cables around his other arm; as it was the only light, he would need it to keep the creatures away. His goggles were pushed up away from his eyes, which, in reflecting the light, looked to be a solid silver rather than the iridescent gleam in the darkness.

_Silver...he can see in the dark... _

He glanced at her, frowning in some thought before stepping off into the shadows again; Jack watched him and that retreating glow of the fiber-optic light, an anxious feeling in the pit of her stomach. So she got up and moved to the other side of the small cabin, glancing at the food stores before climbing onto the opposite row of seats to inspect the thin metal cabinets set into the wall. She opened one to find a fully stocked first aid kit, complete with medical gauze and a small can of disinfectant spray; the second one held, to Jack's surprise, two small boxes of freeze-dried emergency ration packets. She smiled slightly at this, setting the boxes back inside before turning to the last cabinet; there were three flashlights sitting inside as well as a box of replacement batteries and bulbs.

Grinning, she quickly pulled them out and sat down on the floor; checking quickly to make sure they worked before pulling one of the shoelaces out of her shoe. She strung the shoe lace through the battery cases of each flashlight, snapping the tops securely; but one string wasn't long or thick enough. Jack, despite being forced to steal her own shoes, was one of those people who possesses the odd quirk of wearing more than one pair of shoelace per shoe. She took them all out and knotted them together; the end result was a chain of flashlights that could be hung over one shoulder.

She finished it just as Riddick came back, the third power cel on his shoulder, the cut there looking worse in the light. As he set down the cel, Jack stood up, holding out the flashlight chain for him; he almost didn't notice it. When he saw it, however, an odd look came over his face that Jack couldn't quite place; he pulled the loop of glowing cables from his shoulder and set the generator aside. Then he took the chain from her and strung it over his shoulder, the flashlights shining down his back; He didn't glance back before stepping out again.

Jack felt a knot start to form in the middle of her stomach; her hands were shaking as she sat down on one of the seats, a stinging sensation in her eyes.

_No...I am not going to cry...there's nothing to cry about..._

Jack bit her lip, tasting blood again as she stubbornly wiped the tears from her eyes; she heard Riddick come back again with the fourth cel, but didn't turn to look. Something hit the window about a minute later and Jack looked up, eye's widening as first one drop then another, then a whole onslaught of rain came pouring down. It crashed against the front window and the ground outside the skiff; Jack turned back towards the open ramp, hearing the water splashing down like a waterfall over the back of the wings.

She crept towards the edge, peering through the rain to look for Riddick, but she couldn't see anything but the water and the darkness around the skiff. Cautiously she crept out onto the ramp, staying close to the light as she swept her gaze over the ground outside; again there was nothing, not even the beams of the flashlight chain she'd given him. Her foot bumped against the fiber-optic generator and she glanced down at it, eyes traveling back over to the cells, counting five...

_Five...there were only five...five...why'd he go back out?_

Jack stepped off the edge of the ramp for a moment, searching the darkness again.

"Riddick?" she asked the night, looking towards where they'd left the sandcat, but of course she couldn't see it, there was the shed sitting in the way. There was a screech overhead as something flew past, followed by the sound not unlike that of someone climbing hurriedly over a chainlink fence. Jack turned towards that noise, the fear growing even as the rain came down harder. "Riddick!"

* * *

They needed more than just the cels and the food; even if the skiff came with the standard first aid kit, it wouldn't come with anything to stitch up the gaping cut in his shoulder. Riddick had gone back into the buildings, he had seen some things that would be useful; the flashlights shining down his back kept the creatures away as effectively as the glowing cables had, but they made it easier to carry the last two cells back to the skiff. The light didn't get in his eyes now and he could see clearly to find the things he needed; he wrapped them up inside two blankets, then found a box to shove the whole lot in just as the rain came pounding down.

_Fuck...as if this place could get any worse..._

The water would distort the light and worse, short them out; the flashlights were not made to be water proof or even water resistant. But the water would also wash away the blood, make it harder for the creatures to zero in on his scent; he would chance it, the light would work halfway through the rain. He held the box in one arm as he ran out into the downpour, finding himself soaked after only three steps; the sound of the rain hitting metal drowned out the electric snap of the flashlights shorting out one by one.

The last one went as he reached the dead sandcat; he wouldn't have noticed it if it weren't for the shriek of one of those creatures as it landed somewhere to his left. He spun towards it, gritting his teeth as it twisted its head back and forth, dagger toothed-jaw flexing in anticipation of having him for a meal. It was being cautious, however, so Riddick guess it to be one of the ones that had been following them despite the light; it was bigger than the two he'd killed before, almost big enough to bite his head clean off if it got a clear shot.

_Not gonna get the chance..._

Riddick let out a defiant growl, but froze when his ears caught another sound other than the rain. It was his name; Jack's voice echoed out through the water and he knew that she'd come looking for him again. The creature lunged forward and he side stepped, avoiding a direct hit but still getting sliced in the chest by the thing's claws; a shallow cut, nothing more. It slammed into the side of the shed, crumpling the metal with its skull and scraping against it with its talons. He heard Jack shout again, she'd obviously heard the noise; he found himself willing her to just shut up and stay inside the skiff, she'd be safer there.

The monster spun back towards him, screeching in annoyance at having missed in its attack and for a second he sympathized; maybe it felt the way he'd felt when he'd found out the point of his shiv had missed that bastard Johns' sweet spot by a mere fraction of a centimeter. But Johns was dead now, indirectly and unknowingly killed by Jack; it was a matter of physics concerning the dimensions of the death box and the girl's light weight. This wasn't precisely the right time to be thinking about that, however, so Riddick pushed it from his mind; setting the box down he faced off with the creature, eyeing it for a weakness as it too was no doubt doing.

This time he lunged first, darting forward to grab the two protrusions on the sides of its heads, prepared to snap its neck like he had the last two; but this one, this one was smarter and stronger than its kin. This one whipped its head back, wrenching free of Riddick's grasp and bringing its claws forward, trying to impale him; he could see it coming, the points of them cutting through his flesh just like his shiv had cut so many others. There was a flash of light, blinding him; the creature let out a scream and he heard it slam into the shed again, screeching and wailing and thrashing against the metal until finally all was still.

Riddick's eyesight returned, bleary at first, spots dancing before his pupils from the abrupt flash of light; he saw the form of the creature, burnt and unmistakably dead, blue blood oozing from cuts made by it's self-inflicted crash into the shed. Beyond that, however, was another form, small and unmistakable; Jack was sprawled on her back in a puddle, the generator still in her grasp, some of the cables still glowing, but more than half of them were dark. She had smashed the thing over the creature's head, blinding it, burning it, killing it, all in a singular flash of light that had no doubt chased away any others that may be lurking in the shadows.

And she had done it to save him.

* * *

Jack felt like she'd just been torn into a thousand peices and reassembled without the aid of painkillers or modern medicine; this was more or less the truth, but she didn't know that. Her head and everything else in her body felt like she'd been beaten to within an inch of her life; to make matters worse her gut felt like someone had knotted an electric wire through it. She let out a pained groan, shifting slightly only to find that this made her left side feel like it was being stuck with a red hot poker; she yelp and moved back to her original position, gritting her teeth.

Reluctantly, she opened her eyes, something that proved difficult as her right one felt like she'd been punched and given a nice black shiner. She was inside the skiff, lying on her back on the floor; there was a large blanket wrapped around her and she suddenly became aware of the fact that some of her clothes were missing.

_What the hell?_

She saw them hanging off the other side of the cabin wall; they looked to be half-way dry. Jack felt her face growing a little red; she was still wearing her under clothes, but...

"Had to stitch you up, your clothes were in the way," came the low growl of Riddick's voice and Jack twisted her head around to see where he was. She regretted it instantly, as her neck seemed to be just as bruised as the rest of her body. He was sitting in the pilot's seat of the skiff, staring out the window, through which could be seen the stars and the faint outline of a planetary body, obscuring half the view of space. He didn't turn around to look at her, but he seemed to have guessed her train of thought anyway. "They were wet, so I put them up to dry."

_Makes sense...but..._

"Yours are wet too," Jack observed, trying push herself to sit up with one arm while holding the blanket over her with the other. It didn't exactly work; her side exploded in fiery pain, causing her to fall back down. She heard him stand up and walk over, looking down at her; his goggles were off, she could see the strap hanging out of one of his pockets. The gash in his shoulder had been sewn shut and for a moment she could picture him stitching it himself; she shivered, an action which made her body protest in pain again.

"I'll live," he told her, face expressionless as if he hadn't noticed her eyes wander over his own wounds. "You shouldn't move."

"Hurts," Jack grunted, biting her lip and closing her eyes. Her stomach had stopped cramping up, but none of the other pain had lessened at all in the short time that she'd been awake.

"There's no painkillers," Riddick informed her bluntly. "Except some morphine and that shit won't help."

Jack opened her eyes again; he was kneeling down next to her now, a look of distaste on his face from mentioning the only drug in the med box. He looked like he was recalling a bad memory or something like that; but the expression faded back to his usual scowl when he felt her staring.

_...Why aren't I dead?_

"Thought I was dead," she whispered, voicing what was running through her mind. She'd been expecting it, after all, going out of the skiff with no plan and nothing but the generator to use as a weapon against the creatures. She hadn't thought it through, she'd just acted, swinging on impulse; she gotten slammed against something, she remembered that much, but after that she'd faded into unconsciousness.

"Did you want to die?" he asked, the look on his face implying that he wasn't going to take silence for an answer.

"No," Jack answered softly, feeling tears start to sting her eyes. "I just- I thought-"

Riddick stood up again, still looking down at her; Jack felt like she'd said something to upset him, but she couldn't tell because of his stoic expression.

"Sorry."

"No, no apologizing. Rule number one, no saying sorry for shit that's not your fault," Riddick growled, a sudden flash of anger coming across his face. He moved back towards the pilots chair; scowl still in place. "Now go to sleep."

Jack swallowed the lump in her throat, brushing away her tears and clutching the blanket closer. She closed her eyes, trying to will herself to sleep, but Riddick's voice cut back towards her ears again.

"Jack?"

"Yeah?" she looked more carefully this time; he was back to staring calmly out the window, she could see his reflection.

"Thank you."


	9. As Luck Would Have It

**Darkness, Be My Friend**

Chapter Eight : As Luck Would Have It

Two days was what it took for the skiff to get out past the sleeper lane that the Hunter-Gratzner had been following; another two and it'd reach the Sol-Track where, hopefully, they'd get picked up. There wasn't anything to do besides stare out the window in silence or listen to the sounds of the control panel's near silent hum, a sound that wouldn't change until they hit the shipping lanes so there was no point in constantly watching the screens. Riddick stared at Jack's sleeping form on the floor, he himself sitting with his back against the pilot's chair, occupying his time by crafting a shiv out of the remnants of one of the fruit cans.

She had woken up only twice in the past forty-eight hours, the first time was just after he'd finished pulling the skiff out of range of the dark planet's gravity; she'd spoken with him and sounded as if she would be alright then. But the second time she awoke she was sweating with fever, staying focused only long enough to take two gulps of water before falling back into a restless doze; her eyes were moving quickly beneath the lids and every once in a while her arms would twitch in reaction to something inside her dream world. Her face was very pale, but her pulse was still relatively strong; it wouldn't remain that way for long if she didn't wake up and eat something.

It made him angry at himself for going back after more supplies, even though the blankets had turned out to be useful; the kid had saved his life and now she was going to die for it. And still there was that dark half of his mind telling him that it was better that way, better for her to die now so that she wouldn't be a problem in the future. It kept reminding him of his last mistake, the one that had gotten him caught and shoved into the locked-down cryo-locker in the first place; missing the sweet spot, failing to kill Johns, it was disgraceful. But the merc was dead now anyways, no sense in dwelling in the past yet still the voice of instinct kept bringing it up; he argued with it, she was just a kid, he never hurt kids.

Oh, he'd killed plenty of people before, some for his own survival and some just because they got on his last nerve, the latter of which he enjoyed; but there were other kills, the ones the media and the mercs never let the public know of, afraid that the bounty would fall if the masses knew that two thirds of the murders under his belt were justified. There were other things the public would never know about him, all locked away in the Company files under security that even the most skilled and daring of hackers shied away from; no one besides himself and the corrupted fuckheads that had run the operations on Sigma 3 knew that Riddick's first kills had been three full years after he'd been thrown in prison on a false charge. Altair had been a bitch to get out of, being of a unique nature among prisons; it was during his time there that he first started to listen to the darker side of his mind.

Jack twitched, biting her lip in her sleep and kicking her feet slightly in response to something only she could see; her face contorted into a frown and her one visible hand curled itself into the edge of the blanket, fisting a small handful of the fabric. She was having a nightmare, Riddick could smell that fearful aura start to well up from her small frame; she twisted to the side and let out a pained grunt, the blanket entangling itself around her legs. She went still for one long moment and he wondered what she was dreaming of, what nightmare could possibly be plaguing her twelve-year-old psyche.

_What does a run away fear most? Definitely not the streets...what was she running away from that she'd risk it all just to get away?_

"Not going to," she murmured, her voice little more than a whisper, breaking the silence and his thoughts. Riddick set the shiv he'd been working on aside and raised himself up into a crouch, edging closer to look down into the girl's face; her frown had deepened into nearly a grimace, her eyes still closed and racing beneath the thin skin of her eyelids. She still looked feverish, but when he went to feel her forehead to confirm it she reacted in the subconscious, swinging her fist hand up to knock his hand away. "Not-no! Stop it!"

Jack swung her fist again, but he caught it and held her arm down to her side, scowling to himself; his first guess at her dreams was a no go, the creatures may be fuel for random nightmares in the future, but they hadn't left as dangerous an impression on her mind. Her eyes fluttered for a second then slowly opened, flicking back and forth rapidly, her breath quickening in panic as if she didn't know where she was; then she saw him staring at her and confusion replaced the frown on her face. Then the recognition flashed in her eyes not a second later, and the panic receded; evidently there was no reason for him to be a part of her nightmare.

"You okay in there, kid?" he asked, releasing her arm. She looked at him, a slightly perplexed look flashing across her face; she hadn't realized he'd been holding her arm down until he'd let it go. "You punch in your sleep. Talk too."

"Um," Jack said, biting her lip. "Sorry."

"What'd I say about apologizing for shit that's not your fault?" Riddick asked with a slight growl, giving her a look.

She smiled faintly, absently rubbing the side of her face with the palm of her unfisted hand; she glanced around the skiff, blinking a few times before looking back at him. He had turned down the lights in the skiff to the second to last setting, more to conserve power than for his comfort; he had kept his goggles off since they had left the planet but evidently Jack was a little unsettled about the lack of light. She wasn't going to tell him that though, and for that he felt some respect for the girl; she'd rather face her fear than voice it out loud, it was a tomboyish reaction but a good one.

_Still wonder about that nightmare..._

"Where are we?" she asked, breaking the silence. Her eyes were drooping again and she let out a yawn, the effort of talking evidently draining her energy. Riddick didn't answer, instead he reached over under the seat and pulled out a can of fruit, apricots, before grabbing the shiv he'd been working on to pry out the lid.

"Here kid, you should eat," he told her, holding out the can. She reached to take it, but it became evident the moment her hand closed around it that she wouldn't be able to hold it steady; the fever had weakened her so she would more than likely drop it. Sighing, he leaned over and lifted her up off the floor with one hand, helping her bring the can up to her mouth with the other; she took in three gulps of the stuff before trying to push the can away. "Come on kid, you got to eat more than that."

"Not hungry anymore," she muttered, turning her head away.

Setting the can aside, he felt her forehead; it was burning beneath his hand and he let out a low growl, her fever was spiking again. He laid her back down on he floor and pulled out one of the water containers she'd packed onto the skiff; he tore a part of the blanket and soaked it in some of the water before putting it on the kid's forehead. She was asleep again, muttering incoherent things under her breath; Riddick sat back, closing his own eyes while his hands subconsciously closed themselves into fists.

_She's going to die...and there's not a damn thing I can do about it..._

That's when something within the comm unit on the control panel began to beep.

**

* * *

**

The last thing Jack saw in her dreams before she woke up again was a row of white marble grave stones stretching as far as the horizon; ; her eyes came open to a dim room just as that image faded and the first thing she realized was that she wasn't lying on the metal floor of the skiff anymore. Beneath her was a cot with a thin mattress and she was tucked within the sheets with her head on a pillow nearly as thin as the mattress; as her eyes adjusted as much as they could to the darkness she saw that she was in a small room, the only way in and out being a door on the opposite wall. The room smelled faintly like medicine, bringing up memories of a hospital even though the only one she'd ever been to was back when she was three and had broken her arm trying to climb a tree after her brother.

She frowned at the memory, because it was her brother's fault she'd fallen out of the tree anyways; he'd kicked her down when he'd seen how far she'd climbed up after him.

_He never liked me much..._

Jack took in a deep breath and pushed the sheets off of her chest, finding that her top clothes were still missing; she spotted a chair in the corner and there they were, folded and dry. She frowned, wondering what had happened to the skiff and, more importantly, what had happened to Riddick.

_Did we get picked up?_

She felt achy as she sat up and more than a little dizzy, but there wasn't as much pain as there had been when she'd first woken up back on the skiff. Gingerly feeling the side that had felt burned before, she let her fingers trail over the injury, counting eleven stitches in her side; she bit her lip and stood up, a wave of dizziness almost making her fall back on the bed again. She managed to stay upright, however, and after a moment she padded carefully across the floor to the chair and picked up her shirt. The side of it was ripped right near where her injury was and she stared at it for a moment before pulling it over her head; she pulled on her pants as well, but couldn't find her shoes.

Dressed, she moved towards the door, sliding it open taking more effort than usual as she was still a little weak; her stomach rumbled and she realized that she was very hungry. The hall was dark too, darker than her room anyways; she peered out into it, unable to see anything beyond a few feet though she got the impression that the corridor was at least five meters long.

"Riddick?" she asked the empty air. She didn't dare try and call out to see if the lights were voice activated, instead she stepped away from the door, keeping one hand touching the wall; in this way she inched slowly down the hall. "Riddick?"

"You can turn on the lights, kid," came his response, the low rumble of his voice somewhere right behind her. Jack jumped and spun around, startled, her heart suddenly beating against her rib cage like a jackhammer. Her eyes locked on his silver gaze for a moment, the only thing clearly seen in the darkness of the hall; but his glowing eyes disappeared after a only a few seconds. "Lights on."

The corridor lights blinked on in an instant and Jack was slightly surprised that she didn't have to squint for her eyes to adjust, the lights were still lower than normal; even so, Riddick had donned his goggles once more.

"Feeling better kid?"

"Yes," Jack answered, still staring at him. "Did we get picked up?"

"Sort of," Riddick replied, tilting his head slightly. Jack wondered what he meant by that, but her stomach rumbled again right then, reminding her that it really needed food; he seemed to hear it as well, a hint of a smirk on his face. "Hungry?"

"Yeah," Jack responded and he stepped past her down the hall. She fell in step behind him, glancing up and down the corridor at this new setting. The walls were bare metal as was the floor and there were six doors, two on each side of the hall, one at the very far end and the one through which Riddick led her; this one opened up into the front of the ship which included not only the cockpit but a small galley with a table and couch opposite. Jack wasn't an expert on ships, but this one seemed to be relatively big and noticeably empty; there was no one sitting in the cockpit but even with her limited knowledge she knew that most ships came with an autopilot system. "Um, where's the crew?"

"In the skiff," Riddick replied, yanking open the door of the galley's small refrigerator. Jack stared at him, trying to figure out just what that meant; she frowned and he looked up, staring back at her, waiting to see what she would say.

"So," she started, biting her lip. "Where's the skiff?"

"Drifting back near the Sol-Track shipping lanes," he answered, pulling out something from the fridge and tossing it on the counter; it appeared to be a package of re-sealable lunch-meat.

_And what exactly does that mean? Did he kill them?_

Jack felt herself shiver at that thought; she bit her lip and stared at the lunch meat, which looked to be something along the lines of pastrami. After a moment she glanced up at Riddick; he was still rummaging in the fridge, looking for something else to eat she supposed.

"You going to eat that or are you just going to stand there staring at it?"  
She picked up the package, glancing at the date but not opening it; Riddick stepped away from the fridge, letting the door fall shut of its own accord. He started to open one of the nearby cupboards but stopped upon seeing that she hadn't even opened the package yet.

"What's wrong, kid?"

"Did you kill them?" Jack asked, blurting out her question without thinking. She quickly bit her lip again, wanting to look away but not daring to take her eyes off Riddick's face; he didn't look mad but then again he didn't look happy either.

"Don't do that," he growled and Jack blinked in surprise, unsure of what he meant.

"Don't do what?" she asked, slightly perplexed.

"Don't bite your lip," he clarified, turning back to the cupboard. "You'll make it bleed again."

Jack looked down at the lunch meat and ripped the plastic packaging open, absently running a finger over her bottom lip; she could feel a cut there, just barely healing over. It wasn't something she'd consciously noticed before, as was the case with many a bad habit, but now that it had been pointed out it felt more than a little bit strange. She pulled out two pieces of the stuff and shoved them in her mouth, barely chewing before swallowing; she was about to eat some more when Riddick's voice cut back to her ears.

"No."

"What?" she asked, looking up at him; he had his back to her, still looking through the cabinets.

"I didn't kill them," Riddick clarified, glancing over his shoulder at her.

Jack stared at him for one long moment, then nodded her head; accepting it as truth, after all, he hadn't lied to her before, what reason would he have to now?

* * *

The ship was an older model twin engine bulk transport with one large basement cargo bay and the bare minimum of crew space for its size; still, it was better than could be hoped for given the circumstances. There had been just one problem with the scenario; the only kind of people who still ran these kind of out of date transports were clean smugglers, the kind who've kept their track records so scrambled that the authorities would never catch them. Crews like that were apt to take up side jobs for the Merc Guild, so Riddick had been tempted to just ignore them and wait until the Sol-Track was closer to put out the distress signal.

But the ship had spotted the skiff anyways, so he'd pulled out the audio comms and thrown on the emergency beacon along with a type-code signal to indicate the voice-over unit was broken. The ploy had been bought and the idiots had towed the skiff in; more than likely they probably resorted to junking when things went low or got too dangerous in the smuggling circuit. It was relatively easy to knock out the crew and lock them up in the skiff; he hadn't launched it back out into space until he'd made sure the girl was going to be alright. One of the cabins had been converted into a small med-station; that had been eight hours previous and in the time since he'd explored the ship in its entirety as well as reprogrammed the light settings to his specifications.

_It's my ship now._

Jack had woken up and, after eating the entire contents of a previously unopened package of pastrami, hadn't spoken a single word. Either she hadn't believed him about not killing the crew or she couldn't figure out anything to say or ask; both options were likely, but Riddick found himself hoping the former wasn't true. It was unsettling to say the least, the first time he'd ever tried to discern what someone else would think of his killings; but then again, why should it bother the kid. She already knew just who and what he was, hell, she risked her life to save his for some reason he couldn't fathom; and again, why the hell should she care about some people who she didn't even know?

She was watching him, he could feel her eyes on the back of his neck as he sat in the pilot's chair, waiting for the main computer to finish cycling the nav charts so he could changed the ship's identification and registration. Riddick threw a glance over his shoulder at her, then nodded at the co-pilot's seat; she blinked in surprise, then scrambled over, climbing into the chair and flashing him a smile.

_So, she did believe me then..._

"You know anything about computers, kid?" Riddick asked, tapping the side of the computer screen. "I mean besides accessing the newsnet and all that crap they teach you in school."

"Not really," Jack answered, her tone blatantly honest.

"Didn't think so," he said, watching the screen switch back from the nav system back into the graphic interface of the normal computer software.

He could see Jack's eyes gazing at the screen now with a different kind of hunger than before; she wanted to learn. There in lay the dilemma, because that voice in the back of his head was now saying that he should leave her at the first stop and teaching her anything was like saying she could tag along. It would be like saying he accepted the fact that she could someday be an equal, but there was no way they'd ever be equal; she was some run away kid and he was, well, a killer. And he had no doubt that she would want to follow him like a second shadow; which begged the question, was she less than a little sane or was her life before really bad enough to trust an escaped convict over common sense?

Frowning to himself, he pulled up the ship's registration files and keyed in a small code window so he could access the program codes. They scrolled before him on the screen and he cast a glance to the side to see that Jack was observing it all with unwavering fascination. It took only a little longer than twenty minutes to rewrite the ship's access and registration codes, he'd done it at least a dozen times before; when it came to naming the ship, however, he decided to turn to the kid.

"Needs a name."

She looked a little shocked that he was asking her, but her smile widened; how the hell could anyone mistake her for a boy with that smile?

"A name," she echoed, looking thoughtfully up at the ceiling. She stayed silent for a long time, almost long enough for him to think that maybe she wasn't going to say anything else; but then she looked back over at him, still smiling. "How about Twilight?"

"Twilight?" Riddick repeated, mulling it over. Jack's smile faded slightly and he guessed that she was afraid that he wouldn't like it; in truth he thought it was more than a good name for a ship. "Yeah, that'll work."

He programmed the name into the system, watching the girl perk up at the fact that he was accepting the name she'd picked; the simplest thing seemed to make her day. According to the nav charts it was would be a month before the ship got anywhere near civilized space and as far as company went, well, he could get used to that smile.


	10. Conversations on Ancient History

**Darkness, Be My Friend**

Chapter Nine : Conversations on Ancient History

Jack stared at herself in the mirror with a frown, gaze focused on the reflection of the skin around her right eye which now held only the faintest hint of the bruise that had been there a week before. All the other bruises and cuts she'd gained on that planet were nearly gone; the only obvious injury left were the stitches in her side. Eleven black marks standing out against her skin, they would leave a scar there but that was better than being dead; she ran a finger over them then sighed, the stitches weren't what were bothering her right then.

Silently, she pulled her night shirt over her head then turned to the side to see the way it fell over her chest; there was a definite difference there than from what she remembered. Jack's frown deepened at this and she grabbed the hem of her shirt, pulling it tighter against her chest in an attempt to make it flatten out; it didn't work very well. A familiar knot of terror twisted itself tight inside the pit of her stomach as an unpleasant memory floated to the surface of her mind; she shoved it back down, not wanting to think about it right then, but that didn't work this time around.

Jack had been nine when she went into foster care, however, the foster home she'd been put into was not a Company home but one of the independently run ones that littered the back alleys of the universe; in all actuality it hadn't really been a foster home, but she hadn't learned that until later. Her brother had left her with nothing but the clothes she had been wearing at the time; he hadn't said goodbye and she could remember crying. Her name hadn't been Jack back then, but she refused to acknowledge any other name now; Jack was the name she'd given herself, the name that was a part of her being free.

There had been other girls in the foster home, some older and some younger; it was one of the bigger ones who warned her about getting older, about what would happen when she grew up because it had happened to every girl in the home who stayed there. The older girl hadn't spared any details in her explanation; even so, it had taken Jack two and a half years to realize just what she had meant about growing up.

Shivering at the memory, Jack quickly exited the bathroom and made her way back to the small cabin she'd claimed for her own; she paused, looking across the hall at the door to the room Riddick had taken. It was closed but there was a light on in the cockpit indicating that she wasn't the only one who couldn't sleep. As silently as she could, she crept up the hall and into the galley, trying to keep her footsteps quiet as she stepped through the door; maybe this time she'd pull it off.

"Can still hear you, kid," Riddick said as soon as she had passed into the room.

_Damn..._

He was sitting in the pilot's chair and threw her a glance over his shoulder, looking amused; he was wearing his goggles and Jack wondered why. He could have just as easily turned off the lights; she wished he would, she liked the silver glow of his eyes. As it was, he looked like he was waiting for her to say something, more than likely in explanation for what she was doing awake.

"Couldn't sleep," Jack told him and he nodded, accepting that. He turned back to the computer screens, leaving Jack standing there, staring; she fidgeted with the hem of her shirt, trying to control the impulse to bite her lip.

"You just going to stand there?" Riddick asked, not looking back at her.

Jack smiled slightly and walked over, climbing into the co-pilot's seat, gaze falling on the computers; the screens looked similar to the ship's registration he'd showed her before, but there was something different about it. It seemed familiar, like she'd seen that very same window pulled up on a monitor someplace else; it took a second before it clicked. The file on the screen right there was the same one she'd seen the pulled up on the station computer back in the registrars office on Jericho Station; the file the authorities there had sent them so she'd be put on the next ship back to the more civilized places in the galaxy.

_Holy crap...how'd he get that?_

"That's my record at Jericho, isn't it?" she asked, looking at him.

"Jack B. Badd," he read off the screen, shaking his head. "Nice name."

"At least they bought it," Jack said, frowning. "I mean, if they hadn't..."

She trailed off and shuddered at thinking what might have happened if they'd dug up her real file instead of just putting on record her chosen name; she'd rather return and face the monsters on the dark planet. Riddick was staring at her, but she didn't look at him, instead she pulled her knees up to her chest, folding her arms around them; she kept her eyes on the screen.

"Jack?" he asked and she shot him a glance, but didn't respond at first. "If they hadn't what?"

"They'd of sent me back," she whispered, looking down.

"Back where?" Riddick inquired, leaning towards her. Again, Jack didn't answer; she didn't want to talk about this, she just wanted to forget about it all. He wasn't going to drop it, she could tell; a whole week had gone by with her trying to refrain from asking him too many questions and now she was the one being interrogated. "Kid, answer me."

He'd put a growling edge to his voice then and Jack forced herself to look up, hugging her knees closer; he looked a little mad. But Jack bit the inside of her lip to keep herself from speaking, shaking her head; but the memories were returning even with that refusal. There was another fear creeping into her mind too; if she told him, would he take her back there? That question was enough to make her want to bolt off and hide; Riddick seemed to have sensed that thought in her head.

"Don't move."

The command was harsh and so she stayed as still as she possibly could, but just trying to stay motionless made her tremble; she was going to cry, she could feel the tears starting to form themselves in her eyes.

_Why does this happen? If I tell him or he finds out...I don't want to go back there...don't want to go back...not going back..._

"Not going back," Jack said softly, not realizing that she had spoken the thought aloud.

"That what you think? That I'll send you back?" his voice cut through her thoughts; she wasn't sure what to do, afraid to nod or voice an answer to that question. Instead she just looked at him, wide-eyed, and he sighed in exasperation; he pulled off his goggles and looked her in the eye. "Christ, kid, if it's that fucking bad what the hell makes you think I'd take you back there?"

"I don't know," she whispered, feeling ashamed now. "I just...if I go back there..."

She refused to even consider biting her lip now; he'd more than said he wasn't going to take her back so she could tell him.

"It wasn't a Company home. It was registered but it wasn't regulated or anything...there were just girls there, but-"

* * *

Riddick didn't need any explanation beyond just the knowledge that the foster home she lived in wasn't Company controlled; usually that was a good thing, but not when social services was concerned. The Company allowed unregulated homes because it kept the streets clear, not caring that the kids who went to those homes were worse off than they'd have been living off the streets; and an all girl's home. He shook his head and she stopped talking, watching his reaction; he'd heard of places like that and knew what happened to the girls there when they grew old enough.

_No wonder she ran away...no wonder she doesn't want to go back..._

He suddenly felt guilty; at least half the women he'd ever paid for a night with had originally come from one of those homes and here this girl had been fated to that existence. He couldn't imagine her living that life and for once the voice of darkness inside him concurred; it was a strange moment of accordance, rationality and instinct in agreement, even if the darkness was still at odds about keeping her with him. It was confusing, almost the same feeling he'd gotten racing the sandcat against the looming shadow of that ringed planet; if he left her somewhere whoever found her would look up her file and send her back but if he kept her with him...

_...she could get hurt...she could die...or worse..._

Worse, now that was something he did not want to be thinking about; she was still staring at him, waiting for him to say something. For a moment he felt like he should do something, like say something to assure her or give the kid a hug; he pushed that aside, he wasn't exactly the type of person to dole out comfort.

"How long were you there?" Riddick asked of her instead, frowning to himself.

"Two years," Jack answered quietly; the tears he'd seen shimmering in her eyes were still there, on the brink of falling no matter how many times she tried to blink them away. "Was nine when I got dropped there."

"Nine?" he echoed, glancing at the computer screen; the photo in her Jericho file was obviously more recent. "What about before that?"

"Was with my brother," she replied and he noted the slight quaver in her voice as she said it; half sadness, half anger.

"Is he dead?" Riddick inquired; it may have been a blunt question but it got right to the point. Jack shook her head, that simple action telling him one thing; it was her brother's fault she'd been dropped at the home in the first place.

"I don't know where he is, he just left," Jack told him, fingers playing with the hem of one of her shirt sleeves. "Won't be sorry if he is dead."

_And he will be if I ever see him..._

It surprised him, that thought; how in one week he'd found himself taking a liking to this kid he hadn't quite figured out yet. She was smart, picking up on things quickly, already able to write a few simple programs after watching him on the computer; he had noticed that she asked only questions that pertained to the subject at hand even if she was curious about something else. He knew she wanted to ask him about his eyes and had been debating what to tell her when the question came up; there was the story he usually told whenever he got asked and then there was the truth over which he was still skeptical and so had kept silent about.

Riddick wondered if Jack would believe him but then shook his head again to get rid of that question; she'd soaked up every word he'd said in the past seven days since they'd acquired this ship, of course she would believe him. She shifted in the co-pilot's seat, unfurling her legs from her chest and stretching them out before folding them across each other, her back against the chair; she wasn't tall enough sitting up to reach the headrest, so her head was leaned back against the upper middle of the seat.

"Where're we going?"

"Well, that depends," he responded, leaning back against his own chair. "There's a couple places on the route we're on right now. Was thinking off stopping off on Dulroon."

* * *

"Dulroon?" Jack repeated, twisting the hem of her shirt and then releasing it, eyes focused on the now wrinkled fabric.

She wondered if she should tell him that she'd been there before, that she had spent nearly two years living out of the basement of a burnt down house stealing what she needed to survive; she'd even resorted to dumpster diving once or twice, though if she remembered right at least one of those times had rendered her sick. It rained a lot there too; the planet was famous for its violent weather, which was also the only reason it was populated at all. Most of the original settlers had worked on the lightning farms, gathering the high voltage flashes of electricity to charge the ion cells used in the big Company warships. The farms were still there, still working, but the colonies had expanded into one of the darker slums of the universe; looking back now, Jack was surprised she hadn't ended up dead.

"It's a fucked up place, but they don't ask too many questions," Riddick commented, nodding at the computer screen. "Was going to make some IDs just in case."

_So that's why he got my Jericho record…_

"Been there," she said, looking over at him. "To Dulroon, I mean."

"Really?" he asked, tilting his head to the side; he actually looked interested.

"Yeah," she responded, nodding her head only slightly. "It's where I went after…after I ran away."

She bowed her head, suddenly remembering the reason why she'd left that planet too; she'd gone into the port that day thinking that she might be able to get some money by helping unload a ship. Sometimes the smugglers did that, hired the local street rats to help move their crates and shit; it was cheaper than paying the ground staff. She hadn't had that much luck though, and so had resorted to pickpocket-ting, a skill that she had achieved an acceptable level of efficiency with; the last wallet she'd picked up had gone unnoticed like the rest.

It was looking through that particular billfold that she had found the ID card and found out just who the wallet belonged to; she hadn't exactly lied before when she'd said she didn't know where her brother was. She'd been scared then, worried that if he found her he'd send her back to the home; which was why she'd immediately found a ship to stow away on.

_Got caught anyways…_

"It's really rainy there."

"So I've heard," Riddick commented, a half-smile coming across his face. She saw it and smiled herself, but it was broken by a involuntary yawn; she was tired and it was just now catching up with her. "Should go to bed, kid."

"Okay," Jack agreed, standing up and yawning again. "How long until we get there?"

"About a week or two," he replied, watching as she stepped around the chair towards the door. She nodded to herself and crossed over slowly to the door, leaving him in the cockpit with the computer; she just reached the door when she heard his voice again. "G'night, Jack."


	11. Trust in Tomorrow

**Darkness, Be My Friend**

Chapter Ten : Trust in Tomorrow

She was sitting very still on the bunk in the med cabin, holding her shirt up over her stomach and watching with rapt attention as Riddick removed the stitches in her side; he wondered if there was anything at all that she wasn't curious about. It didn't take very long to remove them and when he was done there was a faintly pink scar about an inch long on her left side, the only remaining evidence that she'd been injured at all. He started putting away the medbox, watching out of the corner of his eye as she traced the scar with one finger; she looked back up at him after a moment and smiled.

"Battle scar," she said and he let out a low laugh, shaking his head.

On the inside, however, he wasn't laughing; she'd gotten that scar because of him, its presence there was a reminder of that. Jack stopped examining it and looked up at him, smile widening as she dropped her shirt and hopped off the bunk; her current clothes were assembled from various things she must have found searching through the other cabins. The shirt was two sizes too big for her, on side of it drooping low on her shoulder, and her pants were held up by a belt that looped almost twice around her waist, the cuffs rolled up a dozen or so times to keep them from dragging.

In the past few days the girl had opened up more, acting a lot like the curious kid she was; she still wasn't asking any questions about him, but she had showed that she was interested in more than just learning about computers. She wanted to pilot, hack, and learn how to fight all at once; the latter he'd refused to teach so long as she still had the stitches and he had postponed removing them for her as long as possible. It wasn't that he couldn't teach her, hell, he'd felt rather smug at first when she'd asked him, but then he had gone on to think about it; the problem was that he could teach her and what then?

_Keep teaching her, the more she's gonna want to stay...say no, and she'll stop smiling...what the fuck is happening? Why the hell do I care if she smiles or not, its not my fucking problem..._

But it was his problem, the cause of the continuing conflict in his mind; that smile was addicting, he'd found himself doing things just to see that smile there on her face. The day before he'd actually decided to cook something instead of eating just whatever he could find in the fridge and he'd made enough for her too for some reason; she had never looked happier than right then, grinning broadly. She'd again said thank you, tone just as distinctly genuine as the last two times she had spoken the word; it was the first time they'd eaten a meal together since she'd woken up.

Riddick looked down at Jack, taking in that smile, trying to decipher the whirlwind in his mind; he liked her, there was no doubt about that, she was smart and quite possibly the first person he'd ever met that actually listened to what he had to say. He thought back to their conversation earlier that week, how much he'd wanted to kill her brother after she'd told him about the foster home she'd been dumped at; even now it pissed him off, but it made him realize that he'd grown protective of her in this short time. Turning away, he walked out the door and into the hall; he didn't need to check and see if she would follow, he already knew the answer to that.

The lights were on, but since he'd changed the settings they weren't above level 25; comfortable enough light for his eyes and, apparently, light enough for the girl to see by. He'd taken to wearing his goggles less and less, trying to get her to ask about his eyes; he could see her curiosity every single time she looked at him, but she never voiced it. She kept silent on the inquiries he knew were there and it almost annoyed him; why shouldn't she ask questions about him, he'd gone prying into her past so why shouldn't she pry into his?

He stopped suddenly in the middle of the hall, an action that startled Jack; she nearly ran into him, abandoning her attempts to walk silently just to avoid running into his back. Her bare feet stumbled on the metal floor with a soft thump as she struggled to keep her balance; Riddick would have laughed if it were funny. She was trying hard to be as quiet as he was, had so obviously chosen him to be her idol, and that was nothing to laugh at.

"How old are you, Jack?" he asked, not turning around; he could hear her shifting her feet on the floor behind him, either debating the question or actually forcing herself to think on the answer.

"Almost thirteen," she answered after a moment. "Why?"

"How old was your brother?" Riddick asked, ignoring her question; he'd answer that after he got done asking himself why it mattered.

"He was nine years older than me," Jack responded, a nervous twinge attaching itself to her voice; her brother, he knew, was more than likely a sore subject. There were several half-thought through plans of killing the fuckhead running through his mind, all of which involved causing a considerable amount of pain. He growled low in his throat and continued on walking, passing through the door into the galley; the girl still followed him, a fearfully worrisome expression on her face. "Are you mad at me?"

_What the fuck?_

"No," he answered, wondering what the hell had given her that impression. Her face didn't change as she nodded, turning away to go sit on the small couch at the other side of the room; she fell back against it, pulling her knees up to her chest, carefully avoiding his gaze. Riddick frowned at this; in one moment she'd gone from smiling to looking rather sad, it both bothered and annoyed him. "Should I be mad at you?"

"I don't know," she said, taking in a deep breath. "It's just...you sounded mad."

He stared at her, realizing now that she must have mistaken the tone in his earlier questions for anger; now that he thought about it, it must have been hard to tell the difference based just on his voice. He was used to speaking roughly to anyone and everyone he encountered; it was a habit gained from existing in the darker places of the universe where having a 'don't fuck with me' tone of voice was essential to survival. Jack didn't know this, though, apparently she thought that the rumbling edge that latched on to his words meant something was wrong.

"Not mad at you, kid," Riddick told her, shaking his head; she warily looked over at him.

"You're not?" she asked carefully.

"I am fucking pissed off at your brother, but not you kid," he informed her, pleased to see a faint smile on her face; she looked relieved. Leaning against the wall, Riddick stared at her; she didn't look as skinny as she had when he'd first seen her, nearly two weeks of a steady supply of food had done her good. She still was scrawny, the over-sized clothes not helping in that aspect, but she no longer held the look of a half-starved waif. "Still want to learn how to fight?"

Jack look surprised for a moment and then her smile widened into a grin as she nodded her head; she jumped up from the couch with a little more bounce than usual.

"See that pipe right above your head?"

She immediately looked up; there was, indeed, a metal pipe suspended just a couple dozen centimeters away from the ceiling. It was a coolant pipe for one of the computer back-up generators and it was secured every half meter by thick metal brackets; the pipe itself ran the length of the ship, it was only in the kitchen that there was enough room for it to actually stand out. Riddick had tested his weight on it the night before, having been unable to sleep with nothing to do; he had finished the fake IDs as well as anything else he could think of that would help with the stop off in Dulroon.

"Do pull-ups."

* * *

Jack stared at the pipe; it was good two and a half feet about her head, she'd half to jump off the edge of the couch just to reach it. Not saying a word, she did just that, catching the bar with a grunt and hoisting herself up; she hung there for a moment, looking across the room at Riddick.

"How many?" she asked of him.

"As many as it takes till I say stop," he answered evenly; Jack nodded and took a deep breath before focusing on the make-shift bar.

She hefted herself up, tucking her chin over the pipe before lower herself back down; the second one was harder, as were the third and fourth, but she was dead set on this. If she learned how to fight and got strong enough, then she wouldn't have to worry so much about getting hurt for looking like a girl. Her elbows were getting stuck in her sleeves every time she tried to pull herself up, but she didn't do anything about it; what if she fell or did something equally stupid while trying to fix them?

_Not gonna fall…_

Grunting, she pulled herself up again and again, trying to estimate how many she'd done so far and just how long it had been since she'd started; her arms were starting to hurt.

_Maybe twenty…twenty-five... _

Her palms were beginning to get sweaty and the outside of her left ear had a small itch tickling it; she paused, rubbing her ear against the inside of her arm to get rid of the annoyance before going on.

_Thirty-something…hey, where'd he go?_

Again, Jack paused, for Riddick had apparently left the room; a wave of confusion swept over her, wasn't he going to make sure she kept on doing pull-ups? For a second she debated stopping, then realized that this was probably some kind of test; if she stopped, she failed, so she kept on going. Just when her arms felt like they were going to fall off, he came back into the room, his goggles on now and what may have passed for a slightly amused look on his face. He stood just inside the door and Jack didn't dare stop unless he said something; she struggled through three more, gritting her teeth as he watched.

"You can stop now."

She lowered herself, then dropped the two feet to the floor, stumbling slightly but not falling; the muscles in her arms were burning and she was out of breath. That amused look was still on Riddick's face when she looked back up at him; she was thirsty and a little hungry now, but she wasn't going to tell him that. He seemed to know anyways, and nodded towards the galley; Jack managed a smile and walked over, quickly getting out a cup from one of the cupboards and filling it in the sink.

She drank the water slowly, knowing that to down it fast was to inflict upon herself a stomach ache. When the last drop of water was gone, she set the cup down on the counter and looked back over at Riddick; pull-ups could not be the only thing.

"What now?" she asked of him, her breathing almost returned to normal now.

"Sit ups," he responded, tilting his head to the side.

"How many?" Jack inquired, walking over to the space between the galley and the couch; he gave her a look, the amused expression turning into an actual smile.

"As many as it takes till I say stop," he told her in the same even tone as before.

* * *

The ship's systems were just rotating into the quiet hum of the internal night cycle; there was a star outside the cockpit window that was steadily getting brighter. Riddick threw it a glance before leaving the pilot's chair; he stretched, cracked his neck, then started towards the door with a vague idea of maybe being able to get to sleep. That's when he noticed the girl; she had fallen asleep across the table, exhausted from everything, the dinner she had scrounged from the fridge lying half-eaten next to her. She had spent nearly the whole day doing every exercise he'd told her to do; her muscles had to be burning from the exertion, but she had never complained, not once.

Jack looked completely innocent right then, her face holding a peaceful expression and her short hair looking slightly mussed up; he stood there for a moment, just staring at her. Her eyes were moving beneath the thin skin of her eyelids in the rhythm of whatever dream was gracing her mind; shaking his head, Riddick walked over and lifted her away from the table, he knew it had to be uncomfortable sleeping like that. She weighed next to nothing in his arms as he carried her out into the hall, intending to put her in the cabin she'd made claim to; he opened the door with his foot and went to set her down on her bed, but she shifted, pressing her face into his shoulder.

One of her small hands grabbed at a fold in his shirt and he frowned, looking down at her; she was still sleeping, still dreaming, but she had curled up in his arms like it was the most natural thing in the world. He could have dropped her, but she trusted him not to, even if it was only subconsciously; he could have killed her anytime between this moment and the time he'd first pulled her out of that cryo locker, but she had trusted him not to.

_She trusts...me..._

Riddick sat down on the bed, still holding Jack as he thought this, frown deepening; the darkness surfaced again briefly to present its argument concerning the girl, but this time he shoved it back without a second's worth of consideration.

_Been a long time since anyone's trusted me...as if anyone ever really did...but she does... _

Silently, he leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes, listening to her breathe; the sleep he'd been depraved of in the past few days finally claiming him.


	12. Graveyard of a Dream World

**Darkness, Be My Friend**

Chapter Eleven : Graveyard of a Dream World

Jack's eyes fluttered open slowly and for a second she was unsure of where she was; all she knew was that for some reason she felt safe and comforted, content in a way she hadn't felt since her parents had died. Right at that moment she knew nothing was going to hurt her, but it was a strange knowledge after having had so much hurt and hardship. She still was rather tired, but she forced herself awake, shifting and turning her head to find out where she was; the lights were out, so she couldn't see, but her other senses were working just find.

She heard a heartbeat other than her own, stronger than her own, the sound of it right next to her ear, and she felt as if she were being held close to that sound by two equally strong arms; this, of course, was the truth. Slowly raising her head, Jack looked up to see a pair of silver orbs staring down at her, watching and waiting for her reaction; she stared back, unsure of what to say or do. He was just holding her, she realized, nothing but just that; he wasn't pinching or poking or touching like¼

_Like them...he's not like them..._

One of her hands was clamped into a fist, the fabric of his shirt grasped tightly in it; she released the fold of it and realized something. This was the first time since leaving the dark planet that she hadn't had a nightmare, the first time she'd actually gotten more than three hours sleep; Jack found herself giving him a hug before she knew it. Riddick seemed surprised at first, tensing, but after a moment he relaxed and hugged her back; it only lasted a second, then he was standing up and she was scrambling out of the way.

Her eyes had adjusted to the darkness and she could see his outline as he stretched his arms out then tilted his head to the side, cracking his neck. His eyes were still there, disappearing only when he blinked; they were mesmerizing.

"Can I ask you a question?" she burst out, not thinking; he looked at her, nodding almost imperceptibly. Jack paused before voicing her inquiry, unsure of how to phrase it; finally she just gave up and said the first thing that came to mind. "I like your eyes."

"That's not a question," Riddick pointed out with a slight laugh that faded almost instantly; she caught the almost inaudible edge in his voice, a serious edge, like this was maybe not a good subject to talk about.

"Sorry," she said softly, looking away.

"For what?" he inquired; she could feel those eyes boring into her. "Been waiting for you to ask."

_He's been waiting for me to ask?_

"Really?" she asked, looking back at him in surprise.

"Yeah," Riddick responded and Jack could of sworn that he was smiling. "Ask me anything you want, kid. Told you before, I'm not going to bite your head off if you talk. Same goes for questions too."

"Okay," she breathed; she was still sitting on the edge of the bed, feet now tucked under her as she looked up at him. "So...where can I get eyes like that?"

He seemed to lean away, regarding her or quite possibly just thinking about how she had asked the question.

"You got to kill a few people," his voice rumbled in answer after a moment, sounding contemplative and slightly amused.

"I can do that," Jack told him as boldly as she could.

_Got a whole list of people too... _

He was watching her and it felt almost as if he were observing her thoughts; that idea chilled her for a few seconds, what if he could read minds?

"Then you got to get sent to a slam," Riddick continued, the amusement even more evident now. "One where they say you'll never see daylight again. You dig up a doctor, and you pay him twenty menthol kools to do a surgical shine job on your eyeballs."

"So you can see who's sneaking up on you in the dark?" she asked with a grin, feeling a surge of nearly overwhelming awe.

"Exactly," he said with a voice that was half laugh, half growl; but the laugh faded not a moment later and Jack felt the atmosphere grow serious, reflecting the look that now overtook Riddick's eyes. "You don't want one, kid."

It wasn't a question or even a command to deny the fact that, yes, she did want that same silver sheen for her own eyes; it was a carved in stone declaration that she couldn't argue with out loud. She watched him walk from the room feeling slightly disappointed; why, oh, why couldn't she get eyes like his?

* * *

Riddick wasn't entirely sure why he'd told the kid the same half-truth he told every other person who asked; maybe it was the fact that surgery was a more logical explanation than waking up to find the darkness as bright as day. Or maybe it was the nightmares that plagued him whenever he found himself letting his guard down enough to get a decent night's rest; buildings burning, people screaming, and an endless field of white marble headstones under a sky that was both strange and familiar. The first time he'd dreamt of that place was the first year in Altair, the first time he'd ever been put in cryo before; it had been a living nightmare, finding that he was both awake and dreaming while all around him the other prisoner's of the company slept in a state of slumbering death.

He had thought he'd been going insane, hearing voices and seeing a world he didn't know razed and ravaged repeatedly inside his head; that more than anything had led to his escape from there. One of those dreams had snuck up on him inside Butcher Bay before he had broken free of that hellish hole; he'd been knocked, had heard the same voice that had plagued him so many years before, and had awoken to find the darkness as easily navigable as the light had once been. The first nightmare since then had come the night he'd found out about Jack's past and, in effort to avoid it, he'd started sleeping less and less.

His eyes had still been brown back then, it wasn't until getting tossed in the hellhole known as Slam City that they'd made the transition to silver; this was the surgery he had told the girl about, it existed in the way that the homeless dregs of society existed, real but not largely spoken of unless it became a problem. He'd been attracted, he supposed, the way the guards had shied away from the darker portions of Ursa Luna, fearing the wrath of the few other shiners that ran the murky depths; he had wanted to see that fear in every other living soul he came across, wanted them to fear him when he looked them in the eye. It had never occurred to Riddick back then that he'd ever run across someone who wasn't afraid of his shine, let alone wanted one; it was sometimes more of a hindrance than an asset.

He knew the specs of it, had looked them up after stealing that shuttle and breaking free of the orbiting facility some eleven hours later; it had come as a bit of a shock. Only two percent of patients had ever survived the procedure, that alone was enough for him to berate himself for being so reckless; but even less than that came out of it with their vision intact, in fact the odds were one in ten million.

_And the kid fucking wants one... _

Riddick shook his head, staring out the window at the stars, one of which was now bright enough to be blinding if looked at straight on, the planets around it giving off radio signals that kept the usually silent hum of the comm unit buzzing; it was nearly a week later and a half since she'd finally asked about his eyes and he couldn't stop thinking about. Oh, she'd asked other questions since then, like how he'd ended up on the Hunter-Gratzner; he told her about Johns and how he'd been caught, leaving out no details. She'd looked like she was going to cry upon hearing that the merc had shot two kids to draw him out; then she had asked if Riddick had killed him.

_Damn if I wouldn't have liked too... _

A slight sound reach Riddick's ears, breaking through his thoughts; he didn't need to turn his head to know that it was Jack, she always made a slight bit of noise while walking, no matter how quiet she tried to be. And she had grown to be pretty damn quiet when she wanted to be; there were times when he could almost forget she was even on the ship save for the incessant thrum of a pulse other than his own. He'd have thought that, what with the training regime he had set her to, she'd have been out like a light but apparently this wasn't so. She walked up to the copilot's chair, having grown used to the fact that he could always sense her presence; she climbed into the seat and looked out at the approaching system.

"Almost there, huh?" she asked, glancing at him; he nodded. She seemed troubled, but was trying to hide it; he could sense it anyways, he'd always been able to sense any emotion related to fear and 'troubled' wasn't too far from that.

"What's wrong, kid?" Riddick asked, turning from the window to look at her face. She was much paler than she should be, reminding him much of how she'd looked on the skiff, helpless with fever; there seemed to be a trail of dried tears on her cheeks.

"Nightmare," Jack answered, the one word summing up pretty much everything; Riddick nodded, understanding. She'd more than likely been having them every night since they'd left the dark planet, even though he hadn't heard her scream or anything like that. She was more than likely the kind of person who never screamed due to a dream; hell, the only time he'd ever heard her scream was when that creature had her trapped beneath the floor of the crashed ship. She kept on staring out the window, whispering an aside that he heard anyways. "It won't go away."

"The nightmares?" he prompted, leaning forward in his chair, frowning. Something about the fact that someone besides himself was plagued by recurring bad dreams struck a chord, even if hers were nothing more than memories of that planet or her past. Jack nodded and brushed at her hair, which was getting in her eyes; it had grown a little in the past month, enough so that it had become an apparent annoyance. "Happens sometimes, kid, you got to live with it."

"But it's..." she started to say, glancing sideways at him. "It's different...never used to have this nightmare before, used to just be...them hurting me or..."

Her words faded and she closed her eyes, face scrunching into a pained frown; she still hated talking about her time at that fucked up excuse for a foster home. It was just as well, since every time he thought about it Riddick felt like punching something.

"It's scarier..."

"Scarier how?" he asked, wondering what the hell a twelve-year-old would find much scarier than what she'd already witnessed in life.

"I don't know," Jack whispered, squeezing her eyes shut tighter. "It just is and all I see is this graveyard..."

She had continued talking but for a moment Riddick couldn't hear her words; was she seeing the same planet-wide cemetary that kept haunting his nightmares or was it some kind of coincidence?

"...And then there's a voice asking you to remember," he murmured, finishing her statement; her eyes flashed open wide, staring at him. It was enough to confirm everything; she was having the same recurring nightmare. "How long've you had that dream, kid?"

"Since after the skiff," she answered, clearly disturbed by the fact that he knew her nightmare. "You've seen it too, haven't you?"

"Yeah, kid," Riddick muttered, leaning back in his chair, running a hand over his face. "I've seen it too."

* * *

A sense of horrible foreboding now settled in the pit of Jack's stomach; her nightmares weren't a lone incidence occurring inside her head, but an experience shared. Before then she had been almost completely sure that Riddick didn't have nightmares; he was so strong and unafraid, how could anything terrifying plague his sleep? But now she realized that, far from sleeping, he'd been staying awake in the cockpit to avoid the dreams.

"What's it mean?" she asked, unable to stop staring at him; the look on his face told her the answer before he voiced it.

"Don't know," Riddick replied with a slight shrug, looking strange with an expression other than his usual stoicism on his face; he looked concerned, confused, and, Jack's eyes widened even more, afraid.

He had fear; this didn't make him seem weak in her eyes, no, it made him seem all the more stronger. It cemented in her head the fact that he was her idol; he was stronger than his own fear even though it was still there and Jack hoped one day she could be as strong as that too. She found herself scrambling out of her chair the next instant and wrapping her arms around him in as tight a hug as she could give the next; it was only the second hug she'd given him and like before, he tensed at first before returning it.

"Kid, you got to warn me before you do that."

"Huh?" Jack asked, looking up at him.

"Not used to people getting this close," he told her with a frown. "Usually a person ends up dead, they try and get this close."

"Oh," she muttered, pulling away. "Sorry."

"Nothing to be sorry about, kid," Riddick said and Jack suddenly found herself cradled in his arms like she'd woken up the week previous. She blinked, startled at first, but soon found that safe, comforting feeling she had felt before, like he was protecting her; she smiled, happy to see him smile back. "Nice to have someone trust me."

_Nice to feel this safe...warm...comfy..._

"When do we-" she started to ask, but the question was broken by a yawn; sleep was creeping up on her again, but she struggled to finish the question. "When do we get to Dulroon?"

"Tomorrow, by the look of it," Riddick responded and she nodded, laying her head on his shoulder; he shifted and she grabbed up a fold of his shirt. "Kid, you can't go to sleep on me."

"Tired," Jack muttered, yawning again; she felt him sigh, his breath ruffling her hair. He didn't protest again, or if he did, she didn't hear it; she had fallen asleep within minutes, secure in Riddick's arms.

* * *

Riddick looked down at Jack's sleeping form, her head using his shoulder for a pillow; he sighed and looked back out the window. He'd decided consciously more than a week ago that he was going to keep the girl with him as long as he could, but only now did he fully realize what that entailed. It was more than just teaching her how to protect herself and it was more than just letting her tag along; he couldn't just do what he usually did when he was on the run.

It wouldn't be just him now; he had to watch out for her, keep her safe from the mercs that would undoubtedly continue chasing him once they figured out he was still alive, even if that wasn't for months from now. More importantly, he'd have to curb his temper in her presence or risk hurting her; he didn't want to hurt her, it was a surprising notion, but then again, so was the fact that she trusted him. He did not want to break that trust; she was already changing him, he realized, for he hadn't killed the original crew of this ship.

Even if it was a subconscious decision, it was a deliberate one now; she was the only person he didn't want to see looking at him in fear and this time the thought didn't bring any confusion to his mind.

_Don't want to lose that smile..._


	13. Picture Perfect Moments

**Darkness, Be My Friend**

Chapter Twelve : Picture Perfect Moments

Jack was wearing the clothes she'd been wearing on the planet again; them being the only ones that properly fit her, it wouldn't have been good if she were seen walking around the spaceport in the loose garments she'd been wearing around the ship. She sat in the co-pilot's seat, watching in fascination as Riddick expertly landed to ship in the docking bay the control tower had directed them to just minutes before.

_Someday, I'm gonna be able to do that..._

She grinned as the ship powered down and she undid the buckles on her harness, eager to see daylight again, even if it was the clouded kind of daylight that could only be found on Dulroon. Watching impatiently as Riddick did the same, Jack wondered if she'd be able to get new shoes; she'd found some money in one of the cabins and that was the only article of clothing that she desperately needed. That and underwear; she blinked and looked down at herself, consciously aware not that her once loose boy's shirt was slightly tighter over her chest.

"You need new clothes," Riddick observed, his voice making her jump slightly; she'd temporarily forgotten he was there, lost in her own thoughts.

"Just shoes and stuff," Jack muttered, feeling embarassed.

"What, you're going to keep wearing stuff that's ten times too big?" he asked, frowning down at her; he was wearing his goggles now, the lenses glinting in the dull grey light from the clouded sky outside the window. Jack shrugged at him in answer. "No, kid. You're getting new clothes. We'll do that first, then come back for the ship's supplies."

He moved past her and out into the hall; it was several seconds before she followed, trailing behind him to the pressure sealed trap door that led down into the cargo hold. He climbed down the ladder into the darkness and Jack didn't hesitate to scramble down after him even though she couldn't see; thoughts of getting a shine job like his fluttered through her head and she grinned.

_Want one anyways, even if he says I shouldn't..._

She waited by the edge of the ladder for him to open the cargo hatch so they could get out; the doors screeched open moments later, flooding the hold with the same dull grey light. Jack ran to catch up with Riddick as he stepped out onto the loading dock; she gave a quick glance at the sky as she jumped outside, noting that the clouds were darkening. It was going to rain soon, not that she minded the rain; it was the thunder and lightning she hated the most about the storms on Dulroon.

Sticking close behind Riddick, she followed him into the spaceport terminal, glancing around at the newscreens on the wall and the registration desk that he walked up to, the clerk giving him a dull look that basically said 'I hate my job'. Jack waited next to the counter as the clerk reviewed the IDs that he'd set to the ship, staring around at the scuffed gray walls; her eyes fell on a digital calender mounted on the far wall. It was tilted as if someone had knocked into it, but she could read the date perfectly fine; she stared at it for a moment before turning to Riddick.

"Is that date right?" she asked in a whisper and he glanced over at the calender.

"Yeah," he muttered, glancing at the clerk to see that the bored man was still fumbling with the out-of-date computer system. "Why?"

"It's my birthday," Jack said; she gaped slightly at the calender, astonished by the fact.

_I'm thirteen and I didn't even know it...wow..._

"Come on, kid," Riddick said, putting a hand on her shoulder and steering her towards the door; he let her go as soon as they were outside again. The sky had darkened considerably, threatening the rain this planet was famous for; Jack followed him down the street away from the spaceport. "So it's your birthday?"

"Yeah," she muttered, looking down at the grubby pavement. "Doesn't matter much, I guess."

She glanced back at the spaceport just then, a prickly feeling on the back of her neck as if someone were staring; she shrugged it off and turned back to Riddick who had stopped, his face bearing an expression of contemplation.

"Let's go, kid," he said after a moment, gesturing for her to follow him.

She had to jog to keep up with him, he had set his pace much faster than normal; she knew the reason why, of course. Dulroon wasn't a place to walk slowly, not when storms could strike up at any moment like the one that was turning the sky black now. They ducked into a covered street just as the first rain drops fell; they plummeted like hailstones against the metal awning, loud in Jack's ears at first but she soon grew used to them like she had during her previous time there.

She glanced around the street, taking in the shops that lined it, although there was a small building at this end with a white sign bearing a red cross and the words 'Clinic' in stamped black letters. There was an old woman with crinkly black and grey hair sitting just inside the open door on a metal chair, eyes closed as if listening to the rain. Jack had seen that building before, but it had been unoccupied when she'd last seen it; she had once used the attic as a place to hide from a particular gang of street rats who thought she'd make a good punching bag.

Taking her eyes off there, she followed Riddick down the covered street towards one of the clothing shops; it wasn't a big store, but it carried clothes her size, she saw that immediately by the dusty display in the window. Someone walked by them as they went inside and the store clerk looked up, glancing them over with tired eyes before turning back to her magazine; Jack looked up at Riddick, who nodded towards the racks, obviously meaning for her to pick out the clothes on her own.

She walked into the racks, rummaging through the articles with a frown on her face; she found a couple things that would work, some shirts and a couple pairs of pants. There wasn't much of a choice between colors; everything was shades of grey, dull green, and dark blue. She glanced around between the short rows, looking for anything else that might work when she saw something in the very back corner of the store.

_Holy crap..._

She stood there staring for a moment, then hurriedly ran back towards the front of the store; smiling. When she reached the edge of the clothes, she waved for Riddick to come and see; he gave her a look but came anyways and she let her smile widen even more as she took his hand and led him towards the back of the store.

* * *

Civilization, the last place in the universe Riddick wanted to be; there were too many people and too many buildings, too many street lamps that would make it hard to see at night. He wanted nothing more than just to leave and never look back, yet here he was, following this kid through the clothing aisles; she had a few things from the racks in her arms, but evidently this wasn't what she was so excited about.

In the back corner of the store was what appeared to be a large blue painted box with black curtain for a door on one side of it; Jack let go of his hand and walked over to it, still smiling. Riddick followed somewhat reluctantly, frowning at the box, unsure of what it was that she found to be so great about it; he watched as she disappeared behind the curtain, then reappeared, waving her hand for him to come over.

"Come on!" she called and he stepped up to the box, still frowning. She grabbed his hand again and tried to pull him through the curtain, which, of course, didn't work. "Aw, come on!"

"What is it?" Riddick asked, still frowning at the box.

"It's an old novelty photo machine," Jack answered, holding the curtain open and pointing at the small computer screen and the miniature camera stuck in the wall underneath it. "They have a couple of them on Old Earth, they're really cool!"

"A photo machine?" he echoed, frown deepening. "Don't know, Jack. I don't like getting my picture taken."

In reality it had been years since he'd last gotten his picture taken and that had been a mug shot; not exactly a great memory or a great picture. Jack's smile faded somewhat and she looked away off towards the clothing racks, biting her lip for the first time in days.

"Um, that's okay," she said, not looking back at him. "I mean, you don't have to. Sorry I dragged you back here."

She looked disappointed, but was trying to hide it; visibly you wouldn't have been able to tell, but her voice was a clear indication. Riddick sighed inwardly and shook his head; stepping up and pulling aside the curtain.

_What the fuck, it's her birthday..._

"Move over," he told her and she grinned, scrambling out of the way so he could sit down next to her. She leaned over him and pulled the curtain shut, cutting off most of the outside light; Riddick pushed his goggles away from his eyes and glanced at her. "So?"

"Might want to put those back on, there's usually a flash on these things," Jack informed him, nodding at the camera.

"You've done this before?" Riddick asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah," she answered, smile fading again as she looked away. "About a week before my parents died, we were going to pick up my step-dad from the airport. They had one of these things there."

Riddick watched her for a moment, not moving to put his goggles back on as she had warned him; he was trying to understand how it would feel, happy and loved one moment only to have the source of it ripped away not even a week later. He couldn't make the comparison; there was nothing remotely close in his life to compare it to, but he knew it must have hurt her. A new thought crossed his mind then and he frowned, gaze flicking towards the camera...

_She's afraid...afraid you might leave...and that's always going to be an uncertainty isn't it? Never know when the mercs will drop in...or worse..._

"Riddick?"

"Yeah kid?" he responded, looking back at her.

"You don't have to get your picture taken with me if you don't want to," Jack told him, her voice sounding careful. "I'll just get the clothes and we can go."

"It's alright, Jack," Riddick said with a slight laugh. "Just take the damn picture so we can get back to the ship."

* * *

Jack grinned down at the two strips of photo paper, six pocket-sized pictures to a strip; she liked the last one best, because she'd gotten him to smile. She stared at them as she followed Riddick out of the store; she carried her clothes in two bags with her other hand, but didn't realize she was falling behind until she looked back up again.

"Hey wait!" she called at Riddick's back and he paused for her to catch up, looking back over his shoulder at her. She reached him and held up the photos with a smile. "Here, one of them is yours."

"Why don't you keep it?" he asked, turning to walk away again. Jack blinked and jumped quickly ahead of him, blocking his path and frowning up at his face.

"But your supposed to have one!" she protested, still holding the photos out. "That's the whole reason there's two sheets!"

"Look kid, what am I supposed to do with it?" Riddick asked, looking slightly annoyed now. "Not like I carry a fucking wallet or anything to keep it in."

"Neither do I," Jack informed him, finding herself glaring.

_Doesn't he understand?_

"Yeah? So what was the point of getting them then?" he asked, a slight growl creeping into his voice. He looked more than a little menacing right then and Jack felt her glare break down; she bit her lip, feeling tears start to sting her eyes. She swiped them angrily away, managing a frown as she looked back up at him.

"It's a friend thing," she informed him, one fist clenched around the handles of her shopping bags.

Riddick stared at her, the annoyed frown vanishing from his face; instead he appeared to be momentarily stunned or perhaps too mad to muster an expression. Jack watched his face and wondered what he was thinking; did he think she was being stupid? Slowly he reached out and took one of the photo sheets, glancing down at it for one long moment before shoving it into one of his many pockets.

Jack saw movement out of the corner of her eye at the other end of the street and glanced past him; there were people standing there and for a moment the sound of the rain on the awning over the road ceased to reach her ears. That horrible feeling she'd had the day before welled up again and she frowned; Riddick evidently noticed her unease and turned, following her gaze. He tensed, seeing something she didn't in the stances of those standing at the far end of the road; turning back he grabbed her shoulder and started walking.

Jack didn't protest, but now she was scared; what had he seen that she hadn't? A shout startled her and suddenly Riddick broke into a run, dragging her along with him; she tried to keep up, her bags banging against her knees with every step. She heard a loud crack like a bolt of lightning and something struck a nearby wall, sending chips of stone flying; suddenly she was pushed ahead of Riddick.

"Keep running!" he commanded, and she did, racing past the clinic at the end of the street and out into the rain, nearly falling as she ran around the corner. She was nearly back at the spaceport when she skidded to a halt, realizing that Riddick wasn't right behind her. She turned and stared wide-eyed back through the rain, looking for him. It hadn't been raining long enough for the lightning to start, so she knew it wasn't that when another crack echoed through the downpour.

_Oh no...no...NO!_

Without a second thought, Jack dropped her bags and started running back.


	14. In Just One Moment

**Darkness, Be My Friend**

Chapter Thirteen : In Just One Moment

Riddick turned back towards the men, annoyed at himself that he hadn't noticed them before; he'd seen one of them go by the shop when he and the kid had gone inside. Their first shot had gone wild, hitting the wall, but that kind of non-aiming was dangerous, especially with the kid around. He was glad she had listened; he didn't want her to see him slash these fuckers' throats.

There were three of them, over confident like most mercs, walking down the street like they owned the place; Riddick was amazed that no civilians were present. Or maybe hearing gunshots wasn't so strange around this place, he wouldn't know, he'd never been here before. Something was bothering him, however; how the hell could they have found him? Surely it wouldn't be another three months before the Hunter-Gratzner was reported missing, maybe more for an investigation team to find out where it crashed.

"Universe is a real fuckin' small place," drawled one of the mercs, stepping just inside hearing range, his gun leveled at Riddick's chest. "Not even a week after gettin' a priority call from one of my buddy's ranting about how some fuckhead stole his ship, it shows up at port."

The merc cracked a grin, nodding in the general direction of the spaceport; he sported two silver teeth in the top row and one in the bottom.

_Fucking mercs..._

"Now imagine my surprise when the thief turns out to be none other than the biggest payday this side of Tandell 4. Then my buddy here says something about that stuck up son-of-bitch Johns, what was it again?"

"Report from the guild," the second merc grunted in answer, his gun leveled at Riddick's head; he was maybe a foot shorter but much broader, with a scar cutting through one inescapably blind eye. "Johns caught him outside of Conga, was headed to Tangiers on some back route ship."

"Right," silver-tooth said with a nod, looking at Riddick with a questioning gaze. "So how the fuck did you end up here."

"Ship crashed," Riddick answered bluntly, sizing them up. They were typical mercs, overloaded with projectile weaponry and ammunition; he hadn't met one yet who used a blade over a gun. "Johns died, I didn't."

"Right," muttered blind-eye. "Let's just bag 'em, don't really fuckin' care how he got here."

"Fine, fine," silver-tooth muttered. "Just one more question."

He raised a questioning eyebrow at Riddick, glancing quickly down the empty street behind him.

"What's the deal with the kid?"

Riddick struck right then, stepping forward and spinning low, flipping the merc's gun barrel upwards just as he fired; the gunshot rang deafening in his ears. He pulled out one of the many shivs he'd made in the past month and swung it upwards in a tight arc, burying it in silver-tooth's side. Blood poured out of the wound as he ripped the blade back out again, grabbing the gun from the merc's weakened grip and pointing it at blind-eye; the other merc started back, so surprised by the suddenness of Riddick's initial attack that his reflexes were slow.

Pulling the trigger twice, Riddick stood straight, eyes darting around for the third member of the party even as blind-eye fell, two bullets in his gut. His hearing was recovering, but the rain on the awning wasn't helping very much in discerning the sounds; he heard footsteps behind them and swung the gun around without looking, pulling the trigger. Just as the gun went off, he saw the third merc step into view in front of him, drawing two pistols from his belt as he jumped out from the alcove he had ducked into.

_What the fuck? He was there...OH SHIT!_

Riddick turned, blood turning to ice in his veins and a horrible feeling knotting steel chains in the pit of his stomach; through goggled eyes he saw Jack standing just a few dozen yards away, a stunned expression on her face. There was blood running freely down the front of her shirt, flowing from a point just below the left side of her collarbone; he could barely make out the bullet hole. She started to fall forward; dropping the gun he ran towards her, hearing another gunshot but not caring.

"No," he ground out as something tore through his gut, but pain wasn't the thing to focus on; all he could see was the horrified look on Jack's face as she fell, knowing he couldn't get there in time to catch her before she hit the ground. "JACK!"

* * *

She ran through the rain, willing herself not to fall as she turned the corner again and dashed past the clinic; she barely noticed the fact that the old woman was no longer there. All that was running through her mind was thoughts of Riddick, her friend, getting hurt, or worse, killed; she wouldn't survive if he did. She saw someone fall as two more echoing gunshots rang out, a first body already bleeding all over the pavement; a third shot rang out and Jack found herself unable to continue running.

Stopping to stand in the middle of the street, she tried to figure out just what had happened, tried to understand why she was now frozen in place; she felt a dull pain in her shoulder and something soaking through her shirt. Looking down at herself she saw the fabric of her clothes darkening with some stain, eyes widening to see that it was blood, her blood.

_I'm...bleeding?_

She looked back up and saw Riddick; he looked stunned for some reason and it took a brief moment for her to figure out why. The gun in his hand was pointed in her direction, she could still see the smoke leaking out of the barrel; her knees went weak all of a sudden, and unable to help herself, she started to fall.

The pain hit then, sharp and biting at her consciousness; the last thing she heard before the world went dark was Riddick shouting her name.

* * *

He reached her just after she hit the ground, unaware that he was now bleeding as well, as he kneeled down next to her; her eyes had fluttered closed as he scooped her up.

"Jack?" he asked, looking for a sign, but all he could focus on was her blood. It had soaked through her shirt, onto the pavement, and now, as he held her, onto his hands; she was limp in his arms.

_No...no...no..._

He'd just held her as she'd slept the night before, thinking about his decision to keep her with him; he'd told himself he wouldn't hurt her and now...

_Fuck no..._

A sharp pain suddenly cracked through Riddick's skull as something slammed into the back of his head. He was momentarily aware of the presence of the third merc behind him, muttering some curse, but then his the injury caught up with him; he fell into unconsciousness with such suddenness that it seemed like the next second when his eyes snapped open again.

In reality it was only three hours, but he was chained and bound to the wall of what he recognized as one of the cabin's in his own ship. The lights were on, but, because of him messing with the settings before, it was dim enough for him to see; he didn't need his eyes to know that the cabin was Jack's, her scent was all over the place.

_She's dead...she's fucking dead..._

The weight of it sent a sharp pain through Riddick's chest; he gritted his teeth as he let out a roar, straining against the bindings. He could hear the ship moving and knew the merc had left her lying in the streets, uncaring of any casualties in bagging his prize; the image of the girl's body still where it had fallen burned it's way into his mind to accompany that stunned expression he'd seen in her eyes.

He had shot her, his friend, quite possibly the only one he'd ever had; the chains seemed to tighten themselves as he tore at them, trying to get free, but the merc had secured him well. There was no escaping these bonds and after a few minutes of trying, he let out another, frustrated roar; the ship responded with an almost grieving silence.

Riddick stopped pulling against the chains and stared across the cabin, noting the unmade bed and the discarded shirt on the floor that Jack had used for a nightgown.

"Jack," he whispered, closing his eyes. "I'm sorry, Jack."

**The End**


End file.
